


Faulty Hearts (aka "Tara & Belle")

by YoDo97



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band), 드림캐쳐
Genre: Angst, F/F, Melodrama, Slow Burn, This story is gonna be super long just saying lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-01-01 07:02:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 50,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18331007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YoDo97/pseuds/YoDo97
Summary: Two women meet at a hospital after their respective girlfriends were involved in a terrible car accident... and a secret affair. In their search to find answers and overcome their betrayal, they find solace in one another, eventually starting their own affair.[Contains coarse language and mature situations.]





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I finally caved in and made my "rookie" fic debut. I'm not new to fics but this is my first Dreamcatcher fic. I don’t have the patience to write/make social media AUs yet so if you like narratives, you came to the right place!
> 
> My writing seems to be getting longer the more I write but I hope it doesn't become too wordy or boring. (Feedback greatly appreciated) So if you don’t mind slow slow burn and character development then welcome! However, this story is reaaaallllly depressing and dramatic from the start. It’s not my usual style but it somehow ended up this way. I like to describe it as melodramatic sprinkled with humor, symbolism, and a buttload of references. I don’t think it’ll get too graphic but I’ll put any trigger warnings if needed.
> 
> I'm not sure about the title yet, but we'll see how it goes as the story moves along.
> 
> If the tags don't already spoil it then you'll figure out which DC ship this story is about. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy!

[2 months ago]

 

 ** **Minji****  

Hyeonie. Baby…

I read your letter.

I couldn’t understand some of it, the English parts, of course.

Can we please talk about this in person?

 

I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.

But if it’s something I can fix you know I will.

****Yoohyeon** **

I don’t think it’s something you can fix this time.

****MJ** **

What is it? Whatever it is I’m sure I can find a way.

****YH** **

I just don’t think I can continue this anymore Minji.

 I’m sorry.

****MJ** **

Continue what? Us? Baby, what’s wrong?

  ** **YH** **

This is gonna sound so cliche but,

 it’s not you, it’s me.

Nothing’s wrong with you Minji

****MJ** **

Just come back home. We’ll figure

this out together.

  ** **YH** **

I’m sorry.

 

[A month ago]

 

****MJ** **

Hyeonie… I know you’re still here in Korea.

I hope you’re doing well.

I miss you, my love.

 

I wanted to tell you that I was given a trip for two to Jeju.

Company perk, you know.

And well, I wanted to ask if you’d like to go with me?

It’s at the end of the month.

 

I know I’m asking too much, maybe I’m just being hopeful.

I know, you’re not talking to me. I just…

 

I just miss you so much.

I just want to see you again

I read your letter every night

It’s all I have left that’s you

 

[one hour later]

If you’re breaking up with me, at least do it in person!

AT LEAST GIVE ME THAT MUCH!

 

I’m sorry I didn’t mean to “yell”

Just say anything. Please.

 

Whatever you’re going through

just know I still love you, Yoohyeon.

I love you.

****YH** **

When is the trip?

 

****MJ** **

!!!

The last Friday of this month.

  ** **YH** **

Ok. Well, have fun.

 

****MJ** **

Hyeonie…

Hyeonie…

Come on…

:(

 

Yoohyeon scrolled through the past text messages between Minji and her. It’s been almost two months since she last saw her, since she went MIA without warning. Minji’s calls to her were unanswered, her texts replied with barely any explanation. She didn’t mean to be so cold-hearted and indifferent to her but she was hoping Minji would take the hint that she was backing off from her. Still, Yoohyeon wasn’t even sure if she wanted it to be over with Minji, her girlfriend of two years.

Old feelings still lingered inside her like an itch that doesn’t go away. Every thought of her made Yoohyeon want to come back. Back into her arms again and feel those kisses by those lips that always formed the brightest smile. She hoped Minji couldn’t see through her ruse, but the guilt and burden were killing her inside. So she took the coward’s way out. Running away.

She stuck her free hand into her hoodie pocket, feeling the card stock edge of her boarding pass, her ticket back home to the states where everything will be familiar again. She tried--in the two years here--to fit here in her birth country but it still felt foreign to her and it treated her the same way, a foreigner, or rather, an outsider who looked like them but will never fully be a true fellow countryman. She tried--she swore she tried--but that was only one of several reasons why she was leaving, but she was just too chickenshit to confront the other conflicts inside her.

She finally tore her gaze away from her phone, now aware of her surroundings. The airport was bustling with people catching their flights, the sounds of shuffling feet and rolling luggage wheels hummed in her ears like bees in a hive. She was on the second level, leaning on the rail and watching the people below. They looked more like ants than bees, she thought. There was an oddly placed water fountain, the ones where you make a wish, in the middle of the traffic though it did not interfere with the flow at all.

Yoohyeon looked at her phone again and realized that Minji is probably on her way to Jeju according to her text weeks ago. She got scared for a moment that she might suddenly bump into her accidentally at the airport. That would be some K-drama shit, right? She thought, almost smirking.  Minji had dyed her hair jet black the last time she saw her so it would be impossible to spot her among the ants of people. It gave her such a domineering presence (much more than the fiery red color she had when they first met) that even Yoohyeon found herself intimidated by her. But once that bright smile turned on she was that sweet Minji she knew.

She shook her head for thinking about her again. Her thumb hovered over the screen, hesitating to send out one last message before she hopped on her plane to say “ _Sayonara,_ Korea!” But does it matter anymore? Wasn’t her silence enough to let Minji know that it was over? Still, she felt like a jerk for leaving her like a bad cliffhanger without a resolution. So she tried to think of a final message. She wasn’t good with words when put on the spot but give her time she could write novels with her thoughts. But there was no time for that, just get straight to the point.

 _‘Wish you all the best’_?She thought, to make it sound like they were on good terms.

Yeah, right.

 _‘I hope you find someone better’_?

How depressing.

She went the coward’s way out again.

_‘Goodbye.’_

She didn’t even acknowledge her name. The moment she pressed ‘send’ she felt a rush of adrenaline causing her to perspire underneath her oversized hoodie. The message went through and she immediately closed out the screen, avoiding to see any reply. Then she peered over at the water fountain again and wondered if she could toss the phone from where she stood without killing anyone. She had no need for it anymore. She’ll just go back home and buy a new one.

She gripped the rectangular device in her thin hands, now clammy from the rush and mentally calculated the distance she needed to throw it accurately so as not to over or under throw it into the crowd below. Even if she did miss, however, it will just be trampled by feet and wheels, and she would still be rid of it.

She wound her arm back into a pitcher’s throw and took a deep breath when the phone suddenly buzzed alive her hand. Startled, it slips from her grip and falls to the floor at her feet. Yoohyeon bent down to pick it up again. It dented on one corner and a hairline fracture crept across the screen. She cursed to herself but realized she was just seconds from drowning it just now.

She glanced at the screen, afraid that it would be __her__  but was relieved it wasn’t. She finally accepted the call.

“Hello?”

“Hello? Is this Kim Yoohyeon?” A man’s voice replied.

“Yes?”

The next string of words didn’t register in her mind and the sound of the shuffling and rolling surrounding her had drowned out the caller’s voice on the other line.

"What? I don’t understand.” She murmured as if he was speaking a foreign tongue. But she heard him loud and clear. She just didn’t like how those words were in the same sentence.

' _ _Minji’__ and ‘ _ _accident’.__

Another sound entered her ears sending her back to reality, the announcement of her plane now boarding. She pulled out the boarding pass from her pocket again and looked at it like it was some riddle. She was conflicted now. In her left hand, her ticket home. In her right hand, her other home with Minji. What is this? Red pill, blue pill shit now? One said “run away”, the other said “stay”.

Yoohyeon coughed. Something was caught in her throat but it was all inside her head. For a moment she thought it was swelling and on the verge of choking her. She tried to swallow the phantom feeling but it redirected itself to her chest and there she finally felt it.

_Stay._

K-drama shit, it is. She pocketed the items, grabbed all her belongings, and high tailed out of the airport. She ran against the flow of walking traffic, dispersing people like ants whose hill has been stomped on. She accidentally knocked over a young girl who fumbled to get back to her feet.

“Yah! You just knocked over a blind girl!” Someone had shouted.

“Sorry!” Yoohyeon yelled back, not stopping to turn around.

She finally makes it outside, completely out of breath after just a few minutes. The night sky decided to make things more dramatic by raining on everything. __K-drama shit__ , she repeated in her head before hailing the nearest taxi.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------

 [2 hours earlier]

  ** **Bora** **

Making dinner. What do you feel like?

****Siyeon** **

Hey baby, forgot to tell you. I have another late

gig tonight. Don’t wait for me. Go ahead and

eat.

****BR** **

Again? You know you don’t have to

do these extra gigs so often. We’ve been doing well.

I got another raise so we should be good.

****SY** **

I know, but you saw how much I’ve been making

the last few months. Doesn’t it feel good to

not struggle for once? It’s been awhile.

****BR** **

I know…

But you’ve been out so late a lot recently.

I don’t get to see you sometimes.

****SY** **

Aw baby. I’m sorry.

Just give me some more time

I got some things to take care of.

****BR** **

I just miss you. I know you’re trying to help.

I guess I just don’t like that it’s this way.

****SY** **

You always tell me to do more to help us out

and the one time I do and it’s actually helping,

you don’t even like it? I don’t understand.

****BR** **

Hey, don’t be so defensive.

****SY** **

I’m not. You’re misinterpreting what I’m saying.

****BR** **

I’m misinterpreting?

**S **Y** **

It’s like you don’t like the way I do things

even if it’s working. I’m finally making 

enough for us, isn’t that what you wanted?

What do you want me to do, Bo?

  ** **BR** **

Are you really trying to start an argument

right now?

****SY** **

I’m not trying to start anything. But I guess I’m just

saying what I’ve been feeling for awhile now.

****BR** **

For awhile?

You’re the one who never wants to

talk about serious things.

****SY** **

You know I don’t like confrontation.

****BR** **

Really?

Well maybe it’s time you grew up a little

and be a proper adult for once.

We’re not kids anymore Singnie.

****SY** **

Really? You’re going there?

Whatever, don’t wait up for me.

I won’t be home tonight.

Going to be Bin’s.

****BR** **

Lee Siyeon, I swear. Not right now.

 

[2 minutes later]

Don’t ignore me!

 

[5 minutes later]

Fine. It’s like you’re never present

 even when you are here anyway.

****SY** **

That really hurts Bora.

I’m trying. Just give me time.

One day I’ll do something people are going to appreciate.

Maybe you will too.

Goodnight.

****BR** **

Singnie

 

Singnie!

 

 AFKJVZNXIL

Bora called Siyeon’s phone. It went straight to voicemail.

“Yah! Lee Siyeon! Pick up your damn phone! Get your ass back home now!”

The message recorder beeped. She was too early. She grunted, killed the call, and threw her phone down against the kitchen counter. She was furious and frustrated but not just now. It has been like this for some time. Bora’s fuse has gotten a lot shorter and it didn’t take long for one wrong word, one little mistake, or one wrong look to set her off. It had gotten so bad that Siyeon would not come home sometimes, opting to crash at Yoobin’s, a long time childhood friend of both Bora and Siyeon, though she was closer to Siyeon.

Bora didn’t want to keep bugging her about Siyeon’s whereabouts. She didn’t want to look like the overly attached and suspicious girlfriend. But that’s who she became. Siyeon had been working these extra singing gigs, sometimes without Yoobin, who is also her band mate. She sung mostly cover songs that everyone knew at parties, weddings, small clubs, and of course, busking. Siyeon did anything to get recognition and more importantly money. Go hard or go home, right? That’s Siyeon.

But Bora opted for the safer route despite studying dance. She took on several odd jobs before settling into a boring but safe office job that actually paid well. Someone had to be consistent in this house. They weren’t in such a rut that they couldn’t pay their bills on time. But it always seemed like money went out faster than it went in. Nothing stayed in their bank account for more than half a week. Still she had to admit that Siyeon’s recent hustling has gotten them an extra boost in the last month or so. Siyeon was even able to buy her gifts and things because they had the extra money. It’s been a long time since that had happened.

Bora calmed herself a bit now, realizing she was being a bit harsh. A bit? How about unnecessarily? She finally looks down at what she is preparing for dinner, not realizing that she had just destroyed an onion with her rough chopping, obviously venting out her frustrations. She was just glad she didn’t chop off a finger. She quickly tosses the mangled onions into a frying pan, the vapors immediately making her nose tingle. She looks up at the ceiling, blinking at tears that were forming in her eyes.

“Damn, these onion ninjas.” She joked but there were some real tears in there. Not only just now, but from the loneliness and frustration she’s been feeling lately. She really missed Siyeon especially lately when she started working late. Sometimes she would be asleep when she got home or Siyeon would not be there when she woke up. Their schedules were opposite, when one left for work, the other was coming home. Even free time together was scarce.

Still she realized it was temporary. Siyeon will save as much money as she can and then maybe she will finally find something consistent. Only she rarely does. Siyeon was never one to conform to the norms, even when they were younger. Bora never thought the odd and homely girl she met when they were kids would be the most free spirited of their trio, almost to the point of recklessness. And while Bora loved that about her it also annoyed her when it came to certain things, like finding a steady paying job.

For Siyeon, singing is life, like air and water to survive. She would do anything for it even if it meant sacrificing her time with Bora for the time being. Bora would always come to watch her shows, always mesmerized by her supernatural voice. But lately she hasn’t been going. She’d rather take her comfortable position as the homemaker and breadwinner. Sometimes she envied Siyeon’s free spirit. She understood Siyeon’s passion, she used to feel that way about dancing. But sometimes you just have to face the reality of life.

_One day I’ll do something people are going to appreciate. Maybe you will too._

Her last message said.

“Fine, I believe you.” Bora sighed to herself.

She finally fixes her dinner and eats it pitifully, alone at the dinner table like an outcast in the lunch room at high school, which was ironic considering she was very popular back in their school days. But even the bright and homely decor of the apartment couldn’t remove the veil of desolation that seem to cover everything like dust.

After cleaning up some thirty minutes later she killed an hour watching dance cover videos on her phone. How she missed doing that, the feeling of her body moving and swaying to beats and rhythms. Imagining how she almost became a back dancer when she used to be a trainee. But now she only feels the aching and weariness of the daily grind. Sitting at the office isn’t helping and she feared that her body would start to deteriorate from the lack of movement. Then she’d really be screwed.

She hoped Siyeon had calmed down and would call her back to apologize. Correction, she hoped she had calmed her ass down and should call Siyeon back first to apologize. Lately when they’d have arguments, Siyeon wouldn’t even bother and would just leave, she could only take so much of Bora’s temper. Confrontation always made her close herself off.

Bora’s video was interrupted by an incoming call. She answered without checking.

“Singnie?” She expected but it wasn’t her.

“Hello, is this Kim Bora?” That male voice answers again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here! A story about one of the lesser known Dreamcatcher ships... "SuYoo" or Sua/Bora x Yoohyeon. Don't know why there aren't any fics/aus about them since Bora seems to dote and tease Yoohyeon a lot, not to mention they are roommates. They seem more like a comedic duo but not in this story hehe Fun fact: I am JiYoo nation but writing this story, I've come to like SuYoo a lot now. lol I guess that's what happens when you write about and fall in love with your characters. kk
> 
> This story is also loosely based on a K-movie as far as the basis of the summary goes. And eventually the other title will reveal itself later on.
> 
> Pls feel free to leave comments here or my Twitter @yodo97 or Curious Cat https://curiouscat.me/yodo97


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos and comments so far! I'm glad to see that my writing hasn't gotten rusty over the years. I didn't want to post too quickly because I hate falling behind but I do have several chapters already written ahead, and I am feeling generous so why not post another chapter? This chapter and the one after it (which I will hold off till next weekend =P) should be one entire part since it still falls on the same night but it's so long I had to split it up to make it easier to read. You're welcome. :D
> 
> Several notes:  
> \- Yoohyeon's Korean and English names are used simultaneously throughout the story, depending on who's talking to her.  
> \- Words in **bold** are actual spoken English dialogue (assuming you knew that everyone's speaking Korean by default)  
> \- Words in _italics_ are either thoughts or dialogue from flashbacks -or- actual Korean words/dialogue.  
> \- If you need a visual of everyone's looks, think of the "What" era. (Silver hair Yoohyeon breathes!)
> 
> Slight T/W: brief mention of car accident details

_Is this really happening?_ Yoohyeon thought. She sat on the cold vinyl bench, leaning forward with her face buried in her shaking hands. The bustling airport sounds were now replaced by the buzzing and humming of medical equipment that echoed in the sterile hallways, like a lonely ghost. It was an all too familiar sound to her.

It had been almost forty-five minutes since she arrived at the hospital from the airport. She sat outside the doors that read “Operating Room” but was forbidden to go any further. She tries calming herself, but her breath was ragged through her thin fingers and soon her whole body began to tremble. She tries again, taking in deep breaths, knowing that panicking would not be good for her. Her duffle bag which contained the remains of her life in Korea laid carelessly at her feet.

Her face teeters between wanting to cry and wanting to scream, but she could not feel the urge to do either. She just closes her eyes to process it all until the sound of blood-curdling screams stabbed through her ears. Yoohyeon finally reacts, moving her hands from her face to shield her ears this time. But now she could hear the sound of pounding footsteps getting closer and closer.

“SINGNIE! SINGNIE! WHERE IS SHE???”

The voice came from a tiny woman, whose long dark hair was dampened from the rain, masking her tear stained face. She was still donning a kitchen apron hinting that she had been doing some housework before being called here.

“SINGNIE! WHERE ARE YOU?!!” She wailed.

She reaches the operating room doors and pounds at them frantically. Two orderlies open the door and the little woman tries to rush past them but was immediately held back. She puts up a fight, surprisingly strong, making the two male orderlies look like they were wrestling down a bucking calf.

One of them finally gets a hold of her, practically lifting her off the floor. The other one assures both her and Yoohyeon that the doctors are working as hard as they can and will update them as soon as possible. The little woman wriggles from the orderly’s hold and sinks to the floor now crying full blown tears.

Yoohyeon couldn’t help but stare at her. Her angular and sharp features caught her eye, how her tears just slid down the bridge of her nose like a stream emptying into the ocean. She wishes she had her camera out to capture such a visual but it was obviously not appropriate right now. But most of all, she couldn’t ignore her for she was so damn loud. How can someone so small be so loud?

Bora continues to wail, choking on her tears, her breath like a stuttering engine. She couldn’t believe what was happening right now. All she was told almost an hour ago was that two people were involved in a car accident, one being Siyeon. She wasted no time driving herself to the hospital though the rain and traffic hindered her from getting there sooner. How fortunate that she didn’t get involved in an accident herself.

She shifts her eyes from the floor to a figure sitting not too far from her by the OR doors. Their eyes meet briefly but the other averted theirs quickly, head shrouded by the hood of their hoodie. A young man, Bora figured from his outfit. He wore an oversized black hoodie that covered his entire head and torso, ripped jeans, and heavy loosely laced Doc Marten boots that looked like they’ve been on a battlefield. He was looking down, fiddling with his paint chipped fingers. He must be here for the other injured person, she concluded.

“Excuse me?” Bora finally speaks, her voice now hoarse. The seated figure looks up again and to Bora’s surprise it wasn’t a guy, but a girl--thin and frail looking--whose hair had been tucked behind her ears and appeared to be silver colored. Her intimidating lip ring was an unexpected sight but her gloomy eyes made her look so harmless. Her gaze met Bora’s red-lined eyes.

“Are you here about the accident too?” Bora asks.

Unable to speak, the punky looking girl just nods her head before looking down to the floor again.

 --

The police officer, an older man by the name of Kang, was typing something into his computer that looked as old as him, using his index fingers to type. It had been almost two hours since both women were informed about the accident. While they waited for the emergency surgery to finish they were taken to the police station to answer a few questions.

Yoohyeon’s leg bobs up and down impatiently. She was growing restless and slightly annoyed.

“ ** **Is this really necessary?**** ” She murmurs mostly to herself, in English. “ ** **No one has told us anything yet. For all we know, you got the wrong people.**** ”  

She was more annoyed that she had missed her flight home but realized this was far more important right now and she scolded herself for being selfish which isn’t her character. Besides, she could easily get another plane ticket later.

Bora side glances at the younger girl, eyes still swollen from crying. _Migook? (American?)_ She thought. One of those Americanized Koreans who thinks they’re too cool to follow their mother country’s ways. She listens to her English mumbles, ranting she assumes from her tone because she had no idea what she was saying.

“Hey,” She said to her. “Try to cooperate or else we’ll be here longer.”

The younger girl huffs, crossing her arms. “ _Arasseo, ahjumma _.__ ” She replies in Korean this time.

“ _Ahjumma?!_ ” Bora’s voice raises a pitch. “I’m barely over 25!”

“ ** **25? Oh, my god!**** ” Yoohyeon exclaims in English again. She seriously thought the woman next to hear was a lot older, time has not been good to her it seems.

“Yah, kid…” Bora bites back.

“Kid? I’m 22.”

Now it was Bora’s turn to react. “22? What are they feeding you kids over there?”

Officer Kang finally hushes them as he got things settled on his ancient computer. He clears his throat before speaking.

“You were called here because you are are the emergency contacts of those involved in the accident.” He explains.

Minji could have picked anyone to be her emergency contact but it had to be her of all people. Yoohyeon thought. She doesn’t deserve it after what she’s done.

“Name, please?” Officer Kang turns to Bora first.

“Kim Bora.” She answers.

He slowly types out her name, looking down at his keyboard then up at the screen after each character. This warranted a collective huff of exasperation from both women who realized this was going to take awhile.

“And what is your relation to the injured,” He looks at the screen. “Lee Siyeon?”

Bora sits up straight as she answers proudly, “She’s my longtime girlfriend.”

The older officer’s mouth scowls slightly then shakes his head as he types that information into the system. He turns to Yoohyeon and asks her the same questions.

“ ** **Kim, Rachel.**** ” She says with practically no accent.

Both the officer and Bora look at her with furrowed brows as if they didn’t already find her delinquent looks distasteful. Yoohyeon just rolls her eyes and begins to spell it out.

“ ** **R-A-C-H--**** ”

“Is that your given name?” He interrupts her. “Your given name, please.”

Yoohyeon, or Rachel, or whoever, sighs again before mumbling softly, “Yoohyeon.”

“Sorry? I didn’t hear you.”

She clears her throat and repeats, “Kim Yoohyeon.”

That made Bora snicker internally. _Brat._ She thought.

“And what is your relation to the injured, Kim Minji?”

Yoohyeon hesitates before answering. “She’s a friend. Just a friend.”

Officer Kang continues to ask them questions while they endure his bird pecking typing. When he had finally finished some twenty minutes later he gives them the news they were waiting for, albeit, news they’d rather not hear but it was better than being left in the dark all this time.

“It appears to be a weather-related accident.” He started. “The roads were wet and the car skidded off the road into an embankment. It appeared to have rolled several times before landing upside down. One person was ejected from the car and found a few meters away while the other was crushed between the seat and steering wheel.”

They both grimaced at the gory details, it didn’t sound real. This stuff only happens on TV, they thought. Yoohyeon feels her stomach turning and it only worsens for she barely ate anything today since arriving at the airport. Hearing the words “ejected” and “crushed” filled her mind with vivid and graphic images and for once she hated that she had an artistic mind’s eye for details.

“There’s a possibility of alcohol involved but toxicology results won’t be ready until after a few days. In the morning we’ll do a thorough investigation at the site since it’s dark and the weather is bad right now.” He finishes.

Bora, on the verge of crying again, spoke up. “You mean, they were both in the same car, together? Who was driving?”

This made Yoohyeon’s ears perk up. She didn’t consider that a possibility. Officer Kang confirms her question, and the two women exchanged glances, trying to recollect if they have ever met before. Neither could recall. He replied that it was Minji who was driving and Yoohyeon almost sighed in relief that she wasn’t the one ejected from the car but caught herself.

“Does your friend drive Uber or something?” Asks Bora, a rather random question.

Yoohyeon shrugs. “I don’t think so.” Actually, she knows Minji doesn’t. She doesn’t have the need to do that.  

“Idiot must’ve hitchhiked again.” Bora sighs, shaking her head. Siyeon would do this type of thing despite Bora’s objections. Yoohyeon caught that remark from Bora and realized, yes, that is something Minji would do. Helping out a person in need, especially if it’s a woman caught in the rain. That’s so like Minji. Always being the hero.

They were then escorted to a table where a box laid open, reeking of gasoline and burned rubber. It contained belongings recovered from the wreckage and the two women were asked to collect everything that belonged to their respective persons.

Bora and Yoohyeon sat opposite of each other staring at the box, still in disbelief. Bora finally reaches in first, pulling out a black clutch purse she had given Siyeon for a birthday years ago. She places it into a trash bag that was given to her.

Yoohyeon reaches in next and pulls out the other purse. A fancy, name brand crossbody that was now marred with burns and scratches on the outside. She opens it and glances at the contents. They seem to belong to Minji, she figures. She always had expensive taste.

For the next few minutes, they took turns silently collecting belongings only to stop once in a while to ask, “Is this hers?” A cellphone with a cracked screen, a scarf slightly stained with blood. It made them both wince as the reality of it all began to finally sink it. It only got stranger as they dug further into the box.

There was a handkerchief with Minji’s initials embroidered on it, stained with a lipstick mark of a color that neither Minji nor Yoohyeon ever wore. Bora looks at it with suspicious curiosity, somewhat recognizing that specific shade of red lipstick Siyeon always wore. She shakes her head, it must be a coincidence. Then there was a backpack with an extra change of clothes that Bora immediately recognizes as Siyeon’s _._

 _Why would she--_ Bora wonders.

After the awkward sorting, Bora and Yoohyeon exchanged glances once again along with obligatory nods of acknowledgment, not really knowing what else to do at this point. Yoohyeon heads towards the exit of the police station until Bora said something.

“Um, hey. What’s your name again?”

“ ** **Rachel.**** ” Yoohyeon insists on using her English name.

“ _Lei… Cheol?_ ” Bora tried.

“Close enough.” Yoohyeon smirks.

Bora shakes her head. “Ok, well I just wanted to give you my number in case we got some things mixed up.” She raises her trash bag in her hand.

“K. Sure.” Yoohyeon replies.

Bora was slightly miffed at the younger girl’s informal speech to her, but she tried to make light of the situation for a cloud of tension surrounded them and they already had enough to deal with. They silently exchanged numbers and headed toward the exit together.

“Sorry. Back at the hospital. The crying and yelling. I can be deafening, I know.” Bora adds.

Yoohyeon definitely agreed to that but she held her tongue.

“S’ok. Anyone would’ve done the same.” Except she didn’t, that part of her brain must have turned off. She nods to Bora one more time before parting ways.

 _Weird kid._ Bora thought as she heads toward her car.

She must have sat there in what seemed like hours but in reality, it was probably only ten minutes. She got in just in time as the rain began to pitter-patter on the roof of the car. The bag of Siyeon’s belongings lay on the passenger’s seat, like a bag of rubbish, which it practically is now. The smell of smoke, gas, and rubber was nauseating. She grips the steering wheel, knuckles taut and white, and fights back the tears that were burning behind her already swollen eyelids once again.

“This isn’t real.” She whimpers. “Singnie--”

She takes out her phone and dials Siyeon’s number. A sound emanated from the trash bag. Bora digs into it and pulls out the phone, its glass screen cracked and leaking liquid crystal. Her caller ID on Siyeon’s phone read “ _My love, my love, my love <3_” and it pulled at her heartstrings. She was barely able to press the answer key but manages to get through. She puts the phone to her ear.

“Singnie? Singnie?” She merely whispers into the speaker, but she could only hear her voice echoing from her own phone, coming out harsh and distorted in Siyeon’s. “Please, tell me this is not real.” Another tear falls down her cheek.

She drops the phone and screams, her voice ricocheting off the walls inside her car, so loud that the windshield could shatter at any moment. She hunches forward, leaning her forehead against the top of the steering wheel, tired and exhausted from the last few hours. She tries to convince herself that this was a dream. Maybe this was a food coma from dinner earlier, she thought. She’ll just wake up with a stomachache and she’ll be fine with that. Anything but this.

~~

“Awesome.” Yoohyeon mumbles apathetically. The rain began to fall on her as she stood waiting out in the open for the bus to arrive. Her duffle bag and the Minji’s things in her hands began to weigh her down, so she drops both on the concrete sidewalk. She lifts her face toward the sky, the cold drops of rain hitting her face and dripping down her long, slender neck. Numb. She couldn’t feel a thing. Even as her hoodie became drenched and her breath visible in the air her body could not connect to her brain to tell her that she is going to catch her death standing out here.

The whole day had been surreal from the moment she woke up at the hotel near the airport. That’s where she holed herself up for nearly two months, having left most of her possessions at the apartment she used to share with Minji. The only thing that remained with her was inside that duffle bag and it was barely anything. Just some clothes, toiletries, papers, and most importantly a vintage SLR camera she used to take photos. Yes, the film kind.

She was set to leave Korea for good, her flight departing that evening which meant she could just sleep the whole way there, all 13 hours of it. But of course, all that came crashing down (excuse the poor choice of words) with a single phone call. What if she had thrown that phone into the fountain just a second earlier? Would she have ever known what had happened to Minji? Who else would be there for Minji if it wasn’t her?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a car horn. Yoohyeon lowers her head. A car had stopped in front of her. The driver lowers the passenger window and she was surprised to see Bora again.

“Hey! Do you need a ride?” She yells at her.

As if a switch turned on, Yoohyeon’s limbs came back to life as she moves toward the car. She threw her bags to the back before settling into the passenger’s seat, her wet clothes squeaking against the leather seats of Bora’s car.

“Thanks.” She mumbles softly.

“Are you crazy? You’re gonna catch a cold standing out there.” Bora went into a motherly mode. The wet girl didn’t say anything else and Bora just shakes her head at her. “You’re staying at the same hotel as me, yeah? The one that the police station offered?”

Yoohyeon nods her head this time as Bora puts the car into drive, heading toward their destination.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? (What What What) English speaking, punky, silver-haired Yoohyeon, er... Rachel with a lip ring FTW? lol I read somewhere on the bird app that she wanted a lip piercing. She's too adorable for that tbh but if anyone can pull it off it's silver-haired Yoohyeon. lol 
> 
> And Bora's still being loud af, that's not going to change. lol Can you feel it? Is your heart breaking already? :(
> 
> Pls feel free to leave comments here or my Twitter @yodo97 or Curious Cat https://curiouscat.me/yodo97


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I've decided to post again, not that I had a set schedule to begin with but I'm way ahead enough in the story that I won't worry about falling behind. So... I didn't realize that I've been posting during peoples' finals/exams week. I was happy to read in the comments that my story is something they look forward to after their exams, so... you're welcome! However, I don't know if you want to be reading this next chapter while you still have exams, it is quite a bit emotional. So don't @ me for not being able to concentrate on your exam because you kept thinking about this. lol

It was colder inside the hotel than outside in the rain and Yoohyeon quickly settles into her room immediately turning on the heat. The lights of the main room were a dingy yellow color giving everything a sickly jaundice look. It wasn’t great, definitely not like the hotel she stayed near the airport, but it was a place to stay. The police station had offered both women to stay there for a week if needed.  
  
She finally peels off her wet clothes, her thin skin prickling into goosebumps almost instantly. She draws a bath then examines herself in the mirror. Like crap, she thought. Her face looked tired and hollow. The white fluorescent lights of the bathroom made her more pale and sickly looking, nearly matching her now tangled silvery hair.  
  
She finally strips off her remaining clothing and slips into the tub, the heat thawing her cold body as she begins to feel again. Her joints bending, muscles flexing, color returning to her skin like a dry sponge soaking in water and expanding. The events of the last few hours replayed in her mind like a movie reel. She could have been on her flight back home to the states right now.  
  
If she was being honest with herself she was hoping to catch Minji at the airport before she left for Jeju, hence why her ticket was booked on the same day as hers. She only wanted to catch the last glimpse of her, from afar, that is if she could find her among the ants of people there. She would immediately spot her if she still had that fiery red hair. Yoohyeon realizes how stupid it sounded to even think that could ever happen. But what about now? She never expected that to happen either.  
  
Yoohyeon sinks lower into the tub, submerging herself up to her neck. Her hair floats like flotsam around her face. The heat was so comforting that she could fall asleep right now. She takes one more deep breath before submerging her entire face under the water.  
  
~~  
It’s like being slapped by a freezing wave, as the water washes away the rain and salty tears off Bora’s face. Her eyes were a mess, puffy and tired. She still convinces herself that this is all a dream. It was only just hours ago that she and Siyeon were just texting each other and she hated that it did not end on a good note. She got worried now, feelings of remorse and regret began to fill her.  
  
_What if_ \-- she started but immediately dismissed the thought. _No, no! You can’t think that way._  
  
She splashes more water on her face, pressing it into her skin. “Just stay calm. Breathe.” She told herself.  
  
Maybe she just needed to talk to someone about it. Of course! She should’ve thought of that before. She looks at the clock on her phone. It was close to midnight, almost too late to call anyone now. But she was somewhat hopeful that the person she had in mind was still up. She tries her luck and calls the number.  
  
“Hello?” A deep voice of a woman answers.  
  
“Binnie!” Bora squeaks. “Were you sleeping? Did I wake you? I’m sorry.”  
  
She could hear Yoobin let out a tiny yawn. “No, I was just in bed reading. What’s up? Why you calling so late?”  
  
“I--” She starts. “Where did you and Singnie perform tonight?”  
  
Yoobin’s voice hitches a bit. “Me and Siyeon? What do you mean?”  
  
“Singnie said you guys were performing a late gig, that’s why she didn’t come home earlier.”  
  
“What? We didn’t play tonight.” Yoobin’s voice was searching, trying to recall. “We haven’t played anywhere in almost three weeks. Unnie, what’s going on?”  
  
“Uh--” Bora chokes. Something isn’t right.  
  
“Are you OK? Is Siyeon unnie OK?” Yoobin asks concernedly.  
  
Bora lets out a weak laugh. “Oh. I think I got my days mixed up.” She lied. “Sorry to bother you. Goodnight, Bin.”  
  
She quickly kills the call and rereads her last messages with Siyeon. She definitely said she was going to a gig earlier that night. She couldn’t have gone solo as most of her equipment was at Yoobin’s who definitely said she did not see Siyeon at all that night.  
  
Something isn’t right. She ran out of the bathroom and into the small living area where the trash bag of Siyeon’s stuff lay on the coffee table. She tears it open and frantically searches around in it, hoping to find anything to give her a clue of her whereabouts. She finds her clutch bag and dumps the contents onto the table. There's her wallet, her makeup, some candies, and various business cards from venues and clubs, including a cafe. She could have gone to any of them. But perhaps the most eye-catching thing that fell out was a weighty pink envelope that is almost bursting full. She takes a look inside and gasps loudly.  
  
“What the hell?” Inside was a stack of ₩50,000 bills, nice and crisp. She couldn’t fathom how or where she got it from. There’s no way that these little gigs Siyeon performs would pay this much. She tosses it down for now and continues her search. She finds her cellphone, still broken and malfunctioning. Then there’s the bag pack of clothes. Bora dumps it out. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just her usual casual stuff, t-shirt and jeans.  
  
Other than the money she found nothing that could possibly indicate where Siyeon was tonight. Eventually, exhaustion catches up to her, her mind and body aching for rest and was already stressed out before the whole ordeal. Defeated, Bora stumbles into bed, longing for sleep to take her. But it won’t come easily tonight.  
  
~~

Yoohyeon sits on the couch in the living area, its springs creaking from her weight. Her freshly washed hair drips onto her clean shirt as she reaches into the trash bag that held Minji’s things. She pulls out her purse and opens it. No sign of her plane ticket. Did she not go? Obviously not, she realizes. There was a torn wristband to a club, a thick golden key card to a hotel, makeup, and smashed individually wrapped chocopies. She finds Minji’s distinctive circular glasses though part of the frame was bent. She feels a pang in her chest at the thought of Minji not able to see well without them.

  
She opens her wallet and spots an old photo of them from when they first got together. Yoohyeon sat frozen for a moment, a chill running down her spine. Minji still kept it. Her hair was fiery red, a color still vibrant in Yoohyeon's memory. She almost didn’t recognize herself in the picture. She looked so young, her hair a natural brown and looking like a fresh-faced college student with the exception of her spider bite lip studs that made her just a little bit rebellious.  
  
She unconsciously flicks at her remaining lip ring with her tongue, the stud replaced with a thin silver loop. The other hole had closed up after not wearing anything in it because Minji eventually found them inappropriate when she took Yoohyeon out on their dates, which were almost always high class and frou-frou for YooHyeon's liking.  
  
She stops rummaging through their purse now and finds her cellphone in the rest of the heap. It was dented on one corner with a hairline fracture across the screen. Just like hers. Isn’t that a coincidence? She taps the home button and to her surprise, it unlocks Minji’s phone.  
  
A rush of adrenaline fills Yoohyeon with both excitement and apprehension. It feels like she is doing something illegal, but it was Minji’s fault for not using a passcode. Or was she just that bold that she had nothing to hide? Minji’s wallpaper background was pink and dainty just like her. Yoohyeon smirks at it, perhaps it's the most overly cutesy thing about Minji. She taps into several apps but saw nothing unusual. Her internet searches were mostly food recipes and work related things. Another typical thing about Minji, she was quite routine and uneventful.  
  
After stalling around she finally works up the courage to open her messages app and her heart drops as soon as the screen appears. Her last message to Minji went through but it was never opened or read, a blue dot still indicating an unread message. She feels somewhat relieved but it doesn’t make the situation any better. The other texts were from work colleagues about things that would just fly over Yoohyeon’s head. But soon she comes up upon one chat titled “M” and opens it.  
  
[6 hours ago, 2 hours before the accident]

  
  
**M**  
Hey.

  
**Minji**  
Hello dear, how are you?

  
**M**  
Not good. Can you meet me sooner tonight?

  
**MJ**  
Of course, is everything alright?

  
**M**  
I’ll explain later. Just come get me, please.  
Same place.

  
**MJ**  
Alright, I’m on my way.  
See you soon.  
  
Yoohyeon’s final text would come an hour later after Minji’s text to “M”. She feels something unsettling in the pit of her stomach but mostly from hunger. She scrolls through their chat, dating from almost three months ago. It seemed mostly small talk but eventually, the texts got flirty and then pictures were exchanged.  
  
She’s beautiful was her first thought. Wavy dark brown hair framing a heart-shaped face with sharp eyes that could cut into your soul. Her lips were softly colored with bright red, slightly overdrawn. Yoohyeon pulls out Minji’s handkerchief from the trash bag and compares the colors. It was almost spot on. How many shades of red are really out there anyway?  
  
_Is this?_ She thought but she didn’t want to jump into conclusions. She closes out the window and taps on the photos app, not knowing what to expect. She scrolls through poorly taken shots of different foods. The lighting, angles, and compositions were all off. Minji loved to eat but her photos made them unappetizing. Even after Yoohyeon showed her how to take better photos Minji still didn’t have the knack for it. Yoohyeon grins at these photos but not for long.  
  
She finally comes across some videos and taps on one. It was a recording of a live performance of that girl singing on stage. Her voice was so strong and powerful that even though the audio wasn’t great Yoohyeon could still feel the impact she projected through her singing. She closes the video, swiping to the next video, one she probably wasn’t meant to find. She immediately averts her eyes from the screen but she could still hear the voices on it. Minji’s distinctive soft and raspy voice triggered memories in her mind, haunting her like a siren song. She hears another voice in the video, from “M”, whose speaking voice was playful and childlike, a huge contrast from her singing voice.  
  
_Should I?_ Yoohyeon thought when her phone suddenly chimes. She quickly closes out of the video on Minji’s phone as if she got caught watching something inappropriate. Well, she was. She looks at her phone. A text from _“Ahjumma”_. Speak of the devil, she thought.

  
  
**Ahjumma**  
Hey, are you asleep?

  
**Yoohyeon**  
No, I’m still up. Can’t sleep right now.

  
**A**  
Me either. I’m sorry if I’m bothering you.  
I just wanted to talk to someone.

  
**YH**  
Oh. It’s ok.  
 Actually, do you wanna come to my room?  
 I think I found something.

  
**A**  
Really? What’s your room #

  
**YH**  
 107

  
**A**  
ok, I’ll be down.  
  
Bora doesn’t waste any time as she sprints her way down the stairs from her third floor room to the Rachel’s on the first floor, foregoing the elevator. She slows her pace as she reaches the bottom, almost creeping slowly as not attract attention. As the numbers of the rooms descend she feels her heart pounding against her chest, until she feels it in her throat too. What could she have possibly found? Bora wonders.  
  
She was in front of room 107 now. She straightens out herself, brushing down the flannel shirt she still wore that night, now without the apron. She lightly slaps at her cheeks to compose herself before finally knocking on the door.

The door opens and for a moment Bora thinks she has knocked on the wrong room for she almost did not recognize the figure in front of her. She wore now a loose sleeveless t-shirt and shorts, exposing her sinewy arms and long legs. She spots a small tattoo on one of the girl's inner forearms and her silver tendrils are dripping water on the floor. She looks like a ghost. Bora thought. But as she looks past the veil of wet hair she finally sees a familiar face.

  
“Rachel, right?” She finally makes an effort to pronounce it correctly.  
  
Rachel smirks and nods as she lets Bora inside her room. It’s the same dingy yellow lit room as hers only mirrored.  
  
“You said you found something?” Bora gets straight to it.  
  
“Maybe.” She replies and tells Bora to have a seat while she remains standing. “Did you find anything in Siyeon’s stuff?”  
  
Bora thinks for a moment. She wanted to mention about the money but thought it wasn’t relevant. She just shrugs. “Not that I know of.”  
  
“Did she say where she was tonight?”  
  
“She said she had a gig with her band, but--” Bora pauses, “But her bandmate said they haven’t played in weeks.”  
  
Rachel didn’t think it was related but she added, “Minji’s supposed to leave for Jeju today but I didn’t see a plane ticket.”  
  
Bora’s eyebrows furrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”  
  
“Do you have a recent picture of Siyeon?” Rachel changes the subject.  
  
“For what?” Bora replies almost defensively.  
  
Rachel rolls her eyes. _For what? For science, what else?_ She says in her head, but urges on, “Do you?”  
  
Bora pulls out her phone and scrolls through her pictures, making sure that the photos for her eyes only were not visible. She pulls up the most recent picture of Siyeon and shows her. Rachel glances at it for a second and doesn’t need to scrutinize it further for that intense gaze was all she needed to confirm her suspicions.  
  
“It is her.” The words slip from her tongue.  
  
“What are you talking about?” Bora questions the downcast look on her face.  
  
Rachel’s fingers fumble with Minji’s phone behind her back. “I was looking through Minji’s phone.” She started. “She doesn’t even use a passcode. I found a--”  
  
“Give it to me,” Bora demands, stretching out her tiny hand. Rachel reveals the phone and it’s immediately snatched from her, causing her to jump back a bit.  
  
The older woman fumbles around apps until she finds a video already opened. “This one?”  
  
Rachel nods regretfully.  
  
  
_“What are you doing? Don’t!”_ A soft raspy voice whines.  
  
The video was grainy and dark but the voice appeared to be coming from a figure hiding underneath white bed sheets.  
  
_“Come on, let me see that beautiful face.”_ Says a familiar voice off camera. The movements were jerky, almost inducing motion sickness.  
  
_“Is that my phone? Noo~”_ A hand reaches out from under the sheets to grab at the phone but was unsuccessful. The voice off-camera laughs. Bora recognizes that laugh. Her laugh.  
  
The figure hiding underneath the sheets finally reveals her face and Bora finds herself taken aback, mouth gaped open. She’s beautiful, she thought. Gorgeous, hell, who was she kidding? She is straight up hawt. Her blonde bed hair fell gracefully over her dark, doey eyes, and her smile beamed brightly, even though lipstick smeared softly across her mouth.  
  
“Is this Minji?” Bora asks, eyes still fixed to the screen. She sees Rachel nodding in her peripheries.  
  
Suddenly she felt ugly in her skin, her blooming confidence suddenly leaving her like a soul departing. She didn’t know why her eyes were still transfixed to the screen knowing that it was going to get worse from then on.  
  
Minji in the video finally gets a hold of the phone and turns the camera around, confirming Bora’s worst nightmare.  
  
_“Hey, baby!”_ Siyeon says into the camera with such an aegyo voice, then winked and licked her lips like a greasy old man.  
  
_“Gross!"_ Minji laughs off camera.  
  
_“You’re gonna delete this, right?”_ Siyeon pleads innocently.  
  
_“Maybe.”_ Minji teased.  
  
_“Perv.”_  
  
Minji gawks. _“You’re the one who started taking video!”_  
  
Siyeon props herself on one elbow, her shoulders bare, clearly indicating she was naked under the same white bed sheets as Minji. The camera zooms in and out of her face, capturing wavy brown bed hair and eventually pausing at her cherry smeared lips.  
  
_“So, how was it?”_  
  
Minji hums. _“Oh. I really liked that one song you performed, ‘Faded?’ Yeah, I think that’s my favorite song.”_  
  
_“_ Pabo _!”_ Siyeon laugs then narrows her eyes mischievously. _“You know what I mean.”_  
  
Minji laughs again. _“Perv. Now, are you gonna give me an encore?”_  
  
_“Who’s the perv now?”_ Siyeon countered.  
  
There was a moment of silence before Minji busts out with an unladylike chortle, realizing her unintentional innuendo.  
  
_“No, I mean sing something for me.”_  
  
_“Mmm.”_ Siyeon hums, pursing her lips then starts singing a line from a song in Japanese.  
  
_“What does that mean?”_ Minji’s voice is now hushed.  
  
_“It means, ‘even now, I love you. My love, my love, my love…’”_  
  
~  
That struck Bora’s final nerve and she slams the phone so hard against the table that the screen went blank.  
  
“Fucking bitch!” She roars. “I will kill you!”  
  
She darts her eyes at Rachel who almost fell backwards at her dagger-like glare. She wasn’t sure if Bora meant she was going to kill her for showing her the video. The older woman jumps to her feet and stomps toward the door.  
  
“Where are you going?” She yells at her.  
  
“I’m going to kill her.” Bora mumbles over and over, her eyes full of rage.  
  
At least Rachel now knew it wasn’t toward her. She went after her, her boots loosely on, clunking clumsily on the floor. She finally catches up to Bora, grabbing her by the elbow to spin her around, nearly slamming her into the wall.  
  
“Hey! What’s the point?” She says to the fuming woman. “They’re not even awake. For all we know they could already be--”  
  
“Don’t you dare say anything!” Bora growls, pushing Rachel’s arm away from her. She squares herself up to her and looks her in the eye.  
  
“Who is Minji to you anyway?” The question catches Rachel off guard. “I saw that look on your face listening to that video. It affected you too. Who is she to you?”  
  
Rachel hesitates before letting out a defeated sigh. “She’s my… my girlfriend. Kinda… I don't even know anymore.”  
  
“Kinda?”  
  
“We haven’t seen each other for almost two months. I... left her.”  
  
Bora sneers. “Then why are you so worked up if you’re the one who left?”  
  
“Maybe if I hadn’t,” Rachel shudders, “this--Siyeon… all this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I--”  
  
She felt a sudden downward tug at her shirt collar as Bora brings her to her eye level, her gaze just as intense as Siyeon’s, but she was livid.  
  
“I swear if you have anything to do with this I’ll--”  
  
“You’ll what? Kill me too?” She chokes.  
  
Bora only breathes hot breath into her face.  
  
“Go ahead. Kill me! Do it! I deserve it!” Rachel commands then sinks to the floor. It started with soft whimpering before quickly escalating into full bawling.  
  
“God! Minji! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! It should’ve been me! It should’ve been me!” She repeatedly knocks the back of her head against the wall mumbling apologies over and over.  
  
“Hey. Stop it. Get up.” Bora’s tone dramatically changes, her fuse fizzled now by the younger girl’s sudden show of emotion. This is probably the first time she saw a real raw reaction from the tall girl all night and she is falling apart in front of her. She hated that her compassionate side wanted to come out and comfort her right now. But Bora quickly springs into action, worried that the commotion would start to attract attention from other guests at the hotel.  
  
So she crouches down in front of Rachel and manages to pull the girl onto her back, wrapping her skinny arms around her shoulders. After gaining momentum, she was able to lift her off the ground into a piggyback. Fortunate for her the girl was really light, she could tell from her stickly frame. And even more fortunate that she didn’t need to carry her far for her room was right there. She could feel Rachel’s breath on the back of her neck, the moisture from her tears making her hair stick to her neck.  
  
She tosses the crying girl into her bed where she continues to sob, inconsolable. Bora feels her heart breaking for her, the girl is devastated. Then the sobbing turns to choking, then turns to wheezing, which ends with Rachel gasping for air, her breath not fully drawn in. It is when she flails her arms that Bora realizes something is wrong.  
  
“What’s wrong? Are you OK?”  
  
“Bag!” Rachel manages to gasp out.  
  
Bora turns to where she pointed, her black duffle bag on the floor. She digs into it looking for something that could help and spots an inhaler. “This?”  
  
Rachel nods and Bora quickly hands it to her, thin fingers fumble with the dispenser before she finally gets a hold on it.

  
_Chht chhht_ …

  
She drew in a loud gulp of air and the gasping quickly subsides. Her breathing steadied a bit now but wheezing slightly. She keeps crying though, just quiet little whimpers now, like a puppy. Her body lies limp on the bed, curled into a fetal position. Bora couldn’t take it anymore. She sits next to her on the bed and scoops the tall girl into her arms, holding her firmly.  
  
“Let it out. Just let it out.” She says so soothingly. Her demeanor has completely changed, the natural mother-like instinct kicking in. She was suddenly reminded of when she used to work at a daycare, comforting crying babies and children, except they weren’t long, lanky, and had a good few inches of height over her. She adds a little rock as silly as it may have looked.  
  
“Let it out. Don’t hold it in.” She coos.  
  
As if finally given permission, the tears flow non-stop from Rachel’s eyes.  
  
“Minji… Minji…” She mumbles into Bora’s shoulder.  
  
She feels herself growing tired, her body exhausted of all its energy. But the numbness she felt earlier has finally left her. She passes out some minutes later still in Bora’s arms, the feelings of feeling again had overwhelmed her.  
  
Bora stays with her until she was completely asleep. Then she tucks her in, smoothing back her still damped hair. Even in this dingy light, she can see the round cherubic look of Rachel’s face, the tension and lines softened. She really has a cute face, Bora thought.  
  
Now she feels her own eyes droopy and heavy with sleep. It’s time to go back to her own room. She excuses herself after checking everything in Rachel’s room. She opts for the elevator this time instead of the stairs to her third floor room. The rage inside her had subsided, for now. She was more tired than anything and as soon as her head lands on the pillow, sleep finds her easily this time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry. [Let's all hug it out](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/107/432/i_hug_that_feel.png). It's not going to get easier for them but I promise it's not all dreary and doom and gloom ʸᵉᵗ 
> 
> Also, does it throw anyone off when I refer to Yoohyeon as Rachel in the narration or should I keep referring her as Yoohyeon and only use Rachel for when someone calls her by that name? lol Thanks for reading.
> 
> As always, hit me up on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/yodo97) or [Curious Cat](http://curiouscat.me/yodo97) @yodo97.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hey. Trying to post the next chapter before I go watch “Endgame” tonight lol 
> 
> I’ve gained some new followers and likes over the weekend so I’m happy to see that. ^^ 
> 
> Let’s see, nothing triggering unless a small list of serious injuries bother you. There’s a line I wrote that I found funny. Cool points to you if you can find it. Sometimes I like to stick humor into serious things.

The sound of Yoohyeon's phone stirs her from her sleep and bright needles of morning light pricked at her eyelids. She fumbles around for her phone, finding it buried in the folds of the bed sheets.

“Hello?” Her voice croaks.

The next words wake her up almost instantly, straightening her posture as she sits up.

“Really? OK, I’ll be there soon. Thank you.”

She kills the call, yawning loudly and stretching out her long limbs. _What happened?_  She wondered. Last night was a blur. Her eyelids felt too thick to open and were tender to the touch. She had been crying she realized. It was more apparent when she went into the bathroom and saw just how bad her face looked. Her eyes were still red-lined and puffy. Splashing water made them slightly better but they were still very sensitive. But she quickly readies herself to leave until her phone chimes from the bedroom.

 ****Ahjumma** ** ****

Hey, are you awake?

It was Bora, her ID still reads as _“Ahjumma”_ on her contacts list. Yoohyeon quickly changes it before answering her.

 ****Yoohyeon** ** ****

Yes.

 ****Bora** ** ****

Are you OK, from last night?

She was with her last night? Yoohyeon vaguely remembers. She must have passed out. It must have been really bad for her to forget, but she remembered why she was crying. She goes back to her message and answers,

  ** **YH****

 I’m fine, thanks.

 ****BR** ** ****

Ok. I got a call from the hospital just now. Did you?

 ****YH** ** ****

 Yes

 ****BR** ** ****

I’m heading there in a few. Do wanna come?

 ****YH** ** ****

Yes, please

 ****BR** ** ****

Ok. I’ll meet you in the lobby.

 

 ****YH** ** ****

 K.

 

Yoohyeon quickly gets dressed, throwing on some black track pants and another oversized hoodie. Her tangled hair is gathered into a high messy bun revealing a dark undercut that is beginning to grow out. She ends up covering up again, this time the drawstrings of the hood pulled tightly around her face. To top it off she puts on a pair of dark and round sunglasses, hoping it would hide her swollen eyes. She finally slips on her clunky boots and heads out the door. She didn’t need to walk very far for  Bora was already waiting near the front door of the hotel as soon as she steps out of her room. She had her hair in a high ponytail and was still wearing yesterday’s clothes.

“Hey.” Yoohyeon greets her quietly.

Bora tries to stifle a smirk at the sight of Yoohyeon’s covered face, like _goguma_  wrapped in foil… with a lip piercing.

“Good morning. How are you feeling?”

“Tired.” She replies and Bora agrees.

They both enter Bora’s car where the smell of rain, rubber, and gas still lingered inside. They’ve said nothing the whole drive to the hospital even as Bora pulls up into the parking garage deck. They both head toward the same place, the ICU, where they found their partners in their own rooms.

“Concussion, fractured clavicle, fractured left forearm...” The doctor reads out the damage like a typical grocery list. “Our biggest concern is her pelvic region and legs. There’s a possibility of paralysis but time will tell if it is permanent or not.”

He continues talking as Yoohyeon stands there stunned at everything she was hearing. Minji was lying there, practically broken before her. But she looks so peaceful, like sleeping beauty, if it weren’t for all the tubes and bandages snaking around her.

Yoohyeon was hesitant to approach her at first. She looked so fragile (more so than herself) that even a little whiff of air could cause her pain. But at least she was still unconscious. She wouldn’t want to wake up feeling like a rag doll that had tumbled inside a clothes dryer. Yoohyeon shakes off the morbid thoughts again, scratching at her fuzzy undercut inside her hood.

Minji was sporting blonde hair this time. It was so bright it almost made her elf-like. But dried blood stained it red along her roots and it’s not the red color she wanted to see. She was relieved that her face wasn’t messed up too badly, only marked with a few scratches and bruises and a nasal cannula giving her oxygen.

Her eyes continue to follow downward. IV tubes crawled like vines up Minji’s good arm while the other was immobilized in a cast. Then her legs. The doctor said there's the possibility of paralysis. One leg is completely cast to the hip while the other only up to the knee. Both looked heavy underneath the blanket covering them.

After informing Yoohyeon of Minji’s prognosis--which were fairly good--the doctor finally leaves her alone. It was a strange feeling because it was always the other way around for her. She would be the one surrounded by her loved ones. But that was a long time ago. Still, the humming and buzzing of the medical equipment actually comforted her, like white noise in the background.

She pulls up a chair close to the bedside and after some hesitation, she reaches out to touch Minji’s good hand. It felt cool and soft to the touch. She traces her fingertips along the veins of Minji’s hand following them like a road map to her slender fingers. There was no reaction from her but Yoohyeon was glad to feel her strong pulse underneath all that.

“Minji, I’m so sorry.” Yoohyeon apologizes softly as if she was responsible for all this. “It should’ve been me. You don’t deserve this.”

Her nose tingles, indicating incoming tears but nothing comes out, dehydrated after last night's cryfest. She just bows her head silently, gripping Minji’s hand tighter. She wondered what must have gone through her mind leading up the accident. What was she doing? Where was she going? Who was she-- well, she knew who she was with. Did Minji decide to take Siyeon with her to Jeju instead? Were they on their way to another illicit liaison? Heat rose from Yoohyeon’s chest to her neck but she had no right to feel angry. She was the one who left first. She should be happy that Minji has moved on to someone who isn’t a coward like her, it’s just… why did have to be that woman?

~~

 

On the other side of the hall a couple of rooms down, the prognosis was a lot grimmer for that patient.

“Fractured skull, concussion, multiple fractures to the jaw, ribs, shoulder, arms, legs. Punctured lung…”

Bora fades out after “multiple fractures”. The list seems to go on and on. The figure lying on the bed was completely covered with casts and bandages. The face wrapped like an Egyptian mummy. They’ve got the wrong person. This can’t be her Singnie. She tells herself. Her eyes follow the various tubes hooked to machines providing oxygen and liquids, while some removed and drained others. She follows one tube and gasps in shock when she finds out where it had entered.

“That tube--her neck!” She exclaims, pointing frantically at it.

“Oh, the tracheotomy?” The doctor points out. “Because of the fractured jaw, we had to intubate her through the windpipe.”

“But she’s a singer!” Bora exclaims louder. “Is it going to affect her voice?”

The doctor hums at the new information. “Well, the hole can be closed after a while but it might affect the sound of the voice. Speech therapy may be able to help with that.” He shifts a bit, his tone more serious now. “But you understand that what we had to do was necessary, otherwise--”

Bora interrupts him with vigorous nods of agreement. She swallows hard, he is right. It sucked but he is right. She bites her lower lip, fighting back her tears until the doctor leaves. She was brewing with all kinds of emotions, one mostly of vitriol. She paces back and forth around Siyeon’s bed. She’s a mess, everything is broken. But not as broken as Bora’s heart is right now. Shattered. Irreparable. Lost inside a black void inside her chest.

“Wake up. Wake the fuck up!” She growls lowly through her teeth. She paces faster around the bed, the anger rising, charging up inside her. “If you hadn’t run away instead of confronting our problems, you wouldn’t be like this right now. Lying useless like this. What am I supposed to do now?” She pauses as if Siyeon had any response to give. She raises her voice a little higher. “What am I supposed to do, Singnie? Wait for you to pull through and say everything’s gonna be OK? Knowing what you did to me? You cheating--”

Hot tears burned in her eyes, stinging like salt rubbed into open wounds. But it didn’t stop her from spitting out more venom. “Just die! Just fucking die already! Just let your secrets and lies be buried with you!”

She felt the blood throbbing in her head and if she were to die of an aneurysm right now she’d probably be OK with it. The noises from the monitors and ventilators were driving her crazy and they only sounded louder with every beep and hum. She was ready to release another scream when she heard a knock on the door.

Silence. For a moment the chaos inside her head had stopped, molecules frozen in time. The sounds surrounding her gradually returned back to normal volume. Another knock. Bora quickly wipes at her eyes and tries to recompose herself. She opens the door. It was Rachel. Her eyes looked like she had just finished crying, again.

“Yes?” Bora answers, trying to prevent her from looking into the room but Rachel towered over her obviously. Her attention is now drawn to the crazy fuzzy looking pineapple that sat on the top of her head. The kid just looks stranger and stranger.

Yoohyeon notices Bora’s gawking at her hairstyle but she wasn’t even concerned about that right now. “Officer Kang is here. He has an update.” She just says before walking off.

“OK. Give me a sec.” Bora yells back before closing the door again. She collects herself again, taking in deep breaths. She couldn’t stomach the sight of Siyeon right now and she still had more venom to spit out but there’s no point. She wipes at her eyes again before exiting the room.

She approaches the waiting room where both Rachel and Officer Kang sat waiting for her. She takes a seat next to Rachel.

“I know it’s been difficult right now for the both of you.” Officer Kang says sympathetically, “and we’ll try everything to help you out and get things resolved.”

He pulls out a folder from his briefcase and from that some photos. He presents them to both women.

“We did a thorough investigation of the accident site this morning and it appears to be a hit and run.” He shuffles the photos in his hands. “We found tracks on the opposite lane that seem to have swerved off and collided with their car. Here’s the moment of impact.”

He presents more pictures, one of the skid marks on the road at the point of impact and the other was the mangled car the two were in. Yoohyeon immediately notices something.

“You said Minji was driving? That’s not her car.”

“It’s a rental.” Officer Kang replies quickly, pulling out a document from his case. “It appears to have been rented several times over the last two months.”

There were those words again, “two months”. It began to sound like an unlucky number. Officer Kang adds that the odds of identifying the other vehicle is slim due to little evidence found at the site and there were no witnesses or CCTV footage, other than the passerby who called the ambulance after noticing the wreckage afterward.

The meeting adjourns afterward with the assurance that the police will continue to work on the case though the two women weren’t convinced. They had more pressing issues to deal but were left with an even more dreary mood than before. Yoohyeon can hear Bora breathing erratically next to her. She could tell she is only seeing red right now.

“Multiple times.” Bora finally says, looking straight ahead. “The car was rented multiple fucking times in the past two months.”

She starts to put two and two together. Siyeon didn’t start bringing extra income until two months ago when she started doing her late “gigs” and coming home really late.

“Tell me something.” She addresses Rachel without looking at her. “Does Minji have a lot of money? I mean, is she loaded?”

Yoohyeon doesn’t want to answer but the little woman was demanding one.

“Yeah.” It came out in a whisper.

“Like loaded enough to give out envelopes of cash?”

Yoohyeon perks up and turns to Bora. “In pink envelopes?”

“Fuck!” Bora explodes. She gets up from her chair and stomps away back towards the hall, disappearing into the wrong room. She stands over the unconscious patient lying in bed, her body heaving and seething with anger again. She clenches her fists by her side trying to restrain herself from unplugging one of the machines off the wall. Then the door opens behind her.

“What the hell are you doing?” Yoohyeon yells as she places herself between Bora and Minji.

“Your sleeping beauty here has been whoring out my Singnie for two months! She’s been paying her money. And now look at her, she’s all fucked up!”

Yoohyeon ends up having to wrap her thin arms around the angry woman to drag her out of Minji’s room. She gets them outside and pins Bora against the wall, but she kept being so resistant.

“Minji is not like that!” Yoohyeon defends pressing into Bora’s shoulder. “What if Siyeon started it first?”

Bora scoffs but she couldn’t say anything back. Who knows? Maybe she was right but she didn’t want to believe it. She pushes away Yoohyeon and disappears back into Siyeon’s room, the door slamming loudly and echoing into the hall. Yoohyeon herself returns to Minji’s room standing guarded and cautious this time.

~~

“ _Unnie?_ ” A voice answers on the other line.

“Yoobin-ah…” Bora spoke weakly with tinges of desperation in her voice.

“ _Unnie_ , what’s wrong?” She replies. She knew something is definitely wrong because Bora almost never calls her by her real name.

“Singnie… She’s been in an accident. Last night. Here. Hospital right now.” Her words were broken.

“What?!” The younger girl’s voice cracks. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Is that why you called last night?”

“I had to make sure, Bin. I had to see her for myself and--god, she’s a mess. It doesn’t even look like her. Fuck!”

“Which hospital? I’ll get over there as soon as I get off of work.”

“Do you mind grabbing a few things from my place? You have a spare key, right?”

“Yes, of course. Whatever you need, just tell me.”

“I’ll text you a list. Thank you, Bin.” Her voice was tired now. “Love you.”

The phone falls from Bora’s limp hand as she tucks her legs into her chest, sitting on the uncomfortable padded chair in the waiting room. She had to get out of Siyeon’s room. It reeked of every vile sin she committed against her. Images flipped through her mind like a sped up slideshow. Almost a decade plus memories with Siyeon were completely thrown away in a matter of two months. What did she do to deserve this? There is no second chances from this, no forgiveness. Once you cross that line with her you are cut off from the lifeline, straight to strike three, automatic life sentence. Hell, if she could conjure up a __shinigami__ she’d know whose name to write in the death note. But no, even her anger couldn’t overcome the betrayal that slowly suffocated her, like drowning and burning at the same time.

Lunchtime eventually passes but she had no appetite at all. Maybe the hunger is making her think these delirious thoughts. But between the rage and sorrow playing tug of war inside her, she decides to give it up to sleep again, only this time she wishes she’d never have to wake up again. But she would wake up a couple of hours later when she finally receives Yoobin’s text of her arrival at the hospital. Bora gives her the floor number and her childhood best friend appears in record time.

“ _Unnie!_ ” Yoobin calls. Her shoulder length blonde hair is disheveled from running and her round glasses slightly crooked. It would've looked comical if the situation wasn’t so dire. She scoops the little woman up into her arms. “Are you OK? Are you OK?”

Bora felt like a drained battery but the power of Yoobin’s strong embrace brought energy back to her.

”You made it.” She whispers weakly. She guides Yoobin toward Siyeon’s room where the younger girl stood dumbfounded of what she saw.

“My god, what happened, _unnie_?” She drops the backpack of things Bora requested to cover her gaping mouth with both hands.

“Hit and run. Last night.”

“Shit.”

Yoobin walks closer, trying to take everything in. The sight was completely overwhelming. It doesn’t look like Siyeon. She’s known the girl to cry over a measly paper cut, but there are no exaggerated reactions from her this time. Everything was being done for her from her breathing, feeding, to living. Yoobin kneels beside the bed, almost collapsing to the floor.

“ _Unnie,_ how could this happen?” Yoobin isn’t usually one to show her emotions, always keeping a straight face even through the most trying times. But not this time.

“I don’t know, Binnie,” Bora replies, her eyes staring off to nowhere in particular.

“What did the doctors say? Is she going to pull through?”

“I-- I don’t know. I’m still trying to process it.” Bora leans against the wall to support herself. “But she wasn’t alone.” She continues. “The driver of the car, she’s a couple of rooms down. She’s like her fucking pimp or something.”

Yoobin does a double take, turning towards Bora, her tears paused momentarily. “Say what now? What are you talking about?”

“Apparently our Singnie has been whoring herself for two months. She’s been getting money from that woman.”

Yoobin’s brows furrowed causing her glasses to dip down her nose. “What are you talking about, unnie? How do you know this?”

Bora doesn’t say anything, the rage starting to boil again.

“You don’t know that, do you?” Yoobin figures. She stands up, straightening out herself. “What did you do? Did you say something stupid again?”

Yoobin knows her too well. Bora is such a shit talker and her foul mouth always got her into trouble. She was the epitome of acting before thinking. Among the three of them, Bora would jump into conclusions like it’s a trampoline.  

“But her kinda sort of girlfriend hasn’t seen her in two months either so that’s a little suspect, don’t you think?” Bora tries to justify her words. “And all of a sudden Singnie’s been making all this extra money in the last two months. Two fucking months!” She holds out two fingers in front of her.

“How can you be sure? Maybe it’s just a coincidence. And even if it was true that still doesn’t give you the right to say that. What if someone went around accusing Siyeon _unnie_  like that in front of you?”

Yoobin. The voice of reason. The one who keeps her grounded. What would she do without her? Bora sighs, the fire inside fizzles out again, and now she’s running on empty. She just nods her head in resignation.

“Is her kinda sort of girlfriend in there with her?”

“I guess.”

“Well, then. Come on, you have to apologize.” Yoobin grabs her hand and leads her toward the door.

“What? No! Why?” Bora resists.

“Because when you’re being an accusing bitch, you look like an accusing bitch. Come on.” She tugs on Bora’s arm and pushes her into the hallway. “Which room?”

Bora huffs and points at Minji’s room a couple of doors down. Yoobin goes over and knocks on the door. Yoohyeon answers surprised to see someone she did not recognize.

“Yes?”

“Hi. Sorry to bother you.” Yoobin says cordially. “My friend would like to say something to you.”

“Friend?” Yoohyeon questions.

Yoobin turns around and sees no one behind her.

“Excuse me.” She huffs, clearly embarrassed as she returns to Siyeon’s room with Bora in tow a few seconds later.

“I got it. I got it.” Bora grumbles yanking her arm from Yoobin’s grasp. She looks at Yoohyeon with such a smug look. “Hey, Rachel.” She says casually, “How’s it going?”

 ** **“I’m sorry. I don’t understand what you’re saying.”**** She replies in English while shrugging her shoulders.

“What? I don’t understand what you’re saying.” Bora replies in Korean.

 ** **“Exactly.”**** Yoohyeon scoffs.

Yoobin nudges Bora and she really doesn’t want to say it but she knows Yoobin will not leave her alone until she apologizes.

“I just wanted to say… I’m sorry. For what I said earlier and everything else.”

Another nudge.

“I just can’t control my temper sometimes. “

Another nudge.

“And I don’t have a filter for this mouth of mine.”

Nudge.

“And… we should try to help out each other get through this.”

Yoohyeon raises an eyebrow at the lack of sincerity in Bora’s words. And then a final nudge from Yoobin.

“What? What else is there to say?” Bora turns to her friend, now annoyed. She’s lucky that Yoobin’s practically family, otherwise, she would not appreciate how the younger girl was making her look like a scolded child right now.

“If it’s OK with you,” Yoobin takes over. “We’d like to invite you to have dinner with us. You’re not vegetarian, are you?”

Yoohyeon shakes her head.

“Great! Well, let’s say we meet up later for barbecue, OK?”

Yoohyeon side glances at Bora who looks unenthusiastic about it either. She returns her gaze to Yoobin, whose small face is so round and cute she couldn’t help smile at her.

“Sure.” She finally answers.

“Great! I’m Yoobin by the way.” She offers her hand.

“Rachel.” Yoohyeon answers, taking Yoobin’s hand in hers and giving it a firm shake.

“I’m sorry about your friend. I hope she recovers soon.” Yoobin remarks.

“Thanks.” Yoohyeon smiles sheepishly.  
  
Just before Yoohyeon closes the door, Yoobin catches a quick glance at the girl lying in bed and was hit with a sense of familiarity. Her dumpling face scowls slightly. Where has she seen her before? Definitely recently, she figured. If Bora’s suspicions were correct then she might have to be the one apologizing. Now she was face to face with a closed door and a bewildering thought. By then Bora had retreated back to Siyeon’s room so she follows suit shaking the thought out of her head for now.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next part will contain a flashback. Who is it gonna be about? 
> 
> BTW, how’s the length of the chapters? Too long? Too short? Just wondering because some parts should really be all together but it’ll just be too long. Chpts 5,6,7 are all one part but it’ll be over 12k words maybe lol I can’t even read that much even if it’s my own. I’ll just stick to 2.5-4k-ish 
> 
> As always hit me up on Twitter and CC @yodo97


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hey. I got one guess on who the flashback is about and although it was a good guess it's not quite there yet. There is a male cameo here, can you figure him out by the end of this chapter?
> 
> I think this and the next few chapters are more of my writing style in that it's very humorous and very reference-laden. Can you find them? I don't think I even know how many references I put in it lol

The restaurant is crowded and loud with locals, young and old. The three women opted to sit outdoors thinking the crisp, cool, early winter air would do everyone good, clearing out the hospital’s chemical smell from their noses and clothes. Smoke rises from charcoal grills as freshly cut slices of meat sizzled on them, instantly shrinking in size.

Bora sat next to Yoobin with Yoohyeon across from them. The obvious tension between Bora and Yoohyeon was almost as tangible as the veil of smoke separating them. Yoobin decides to break it by speaking first.

“So, Rachel, right? I assume you’re not from here?”

Yoohyeon is staring at the meat. She is starving. She doesn’t remember the last time she’s had a proper meal. She looks up at Yoobin and answers her question. “I was born here actually. Incheon. But I spent most of my childhood in the states. Explains the English.”

“Oh, cool,” Yoobin replies. “How old are you?”

“22.”

“Ah, so you’re older than me. Is it OK if I speak comfortably with you?”

“Of course.” Yoohyeon smiles, the dimple on her cheek made its first appearance in a long time.

Yoobin works the grill as she continues her conversation with Yoohyeon. Meanwhile Bora just sits quietly, her eyes fixed on the smoke billowing and dissipating into the air. She was glad to have Yoobin around, otherwise things would go down, down, downhill right now. She’d probably still hold grudges and bounce on that trampoline of false conclusions right now. Yoobin was always a great mediator, calming the storms before things go awry. She’s done that so many times with Siyeon and her. Sometimes she feels she doesn’t deserve a friend like her.

“ _Unnie _,__ eat.” Yoobin snaps her out of her thoughts. Bora looks up from the grill and sees Yoobin piling her plate with juicy grilled meat.

She nods and replies. “I’m just waiting for--” Before she could finish the waitress arrives with a big bottle of soju. She places it in front of Bora along with three frosty shot glasses. Bora takes the bottle in her tiny hands and begins to twist the cap but with much difficulty.

“Allow me.” Yoohyeon offers, reaching an open hand to her.

Bora glances up at the taller girl before handing the bottle to her. Yoohyeon takes it unsure if she would be able to open it either even though her fingers were longer. But the seal breaks and she twists the cap off with ease. Then she pours out the shots, starting with Bora, obviously, then Yoobin, before Yoobin takes the bottle from her to pour Yoohyeon her shot.

“Just half, please.” She says and Yoobin stops halfway.

“You don’t drink much?” Bora finally says, noticing her glass.

“Not really. Lightweight.”

Bora is surprised by her answer. From the way Yoohyeon looks one would think she was one of those kids who always got into trouble, who did nothing but drink and smoke, and those kinds of things. Yoobin would probably have scolded her for assuming things again and then turn it back around and remind Bora of her young and wild days. Good thing she kept her mouth shut. But she scans Yoohyeon’s thin and lanky figure and concludes that the girl would not be able to handle alcohol at all.

“Don’t worry,” Yoobin chimes in, “Someone needs to supervise anyway, especially Queenie here.” She nudges Bora.

“Brat.” She sneers playfully. “You’re worst than me sometimes.”

Yoobin proposes a toast and they all raise their glasses.

“To uhhh--” Yoobin starts then fades out trying to think of something to toast to for friendship, health, and love were all out of the question right now.

“ ** **Cheers!**** ” Yoohyeon quickly finishes for her and their glasses clinked.

Bora downs her shot with ease, like water, while the younger girls hiss at the burn.

“Noobs.” Bora laughs as she reaches to refill her glass.

Yoohyeon beats her to it, taking the bottle to refill Bora’s glass. It’s the least she could do. She knows that younger people always served their seniors first. That was common sense. Minji had groomed her for these situations, taking her along to her stuffy business get-togethers where age, prestige, status (and sometimes gender) were highly regarded. She was grateful to Minji for helping her understand the culture she was apart of but knew little about. But she couldn’t help feel that this privilege gets abused oh so often. For instance, even though Bora had been a bitch to her (and Minji) earlier she had to suck it up and still treat Bora above herself just because she’s older.

Bora toasts her newly poured drink as Yoobin continues to pile food on her plate. They continue with this sort of groveling, buttering her up to get on her good side. Pretty soon she catches on to them.

“OK, OK. I know what you’re doing.” She slurs slightly, already tipsy. “Chill the hell out. I’m not your grandmother.” The younger girls exchanged smirks, the tension slowly subsiding.

“Eat as much as you like. I got you.” Bora says to Yoohyeon, practically dumping her plate into hers. At least she’s making an effort to finally open up to her.

“Oh, no. I can pay for my share.” Yoohyeon pipes up.

Bora pouts disapprovingly making Yoohyeon realize she was being “rude” for refusing someone’s offer to pay for dinner. Another one of those cultural things. She gets it.

“Thank you.” She resigns, taking her full plate.

“So, how long have you lived here?” Bora asks.

Yoobin had already asked her this a few minutes ago and of course, Bora did not pay attention. So Yoohyeon answers again.

“About two years now.”

“What made you move here?” Another question she already answered.

She shrugs. “Change of scenery. Learn my roots, go to school, that sort of thing.”

“You go to school?”

“I was. I took a break around the end of summer. Photography major.” Yoohyeon picks up a piece of meat with her chopsticks then hears Bora snickering at her.

“Hm?” She looks up in the midst of chewing.

“You hold your chopsticks funny.” She says, pointing out how Yoohyeon held them between her ring and middle fingers, making her wrist bend at a weird angle too.

Yoohyeon snickers too. “Well, I mean, it wasn’t the first utensil I learned to use.”

“As long as it works.” Yoobin chimes in.

“Right.” Yoohyeon agrees.

“Not saying it’s wrong.” Bora almost feels offended, like they’re suddenly ganging up on her. “It’s just, different.” _And kinda cute._  She admits in her head.

“So what’s America like?” Yoobin asks, curiously.

“ ** **’Murica…**** ” Yoohyeon says with a Southern American drawl. “Let’s see, we have freedom of speech, 24-hour stores, crippling student loan debt, and restroom stalls with big ass gaps in the doors.”

“The hell?” Bora crooks her head toward her.

Yoobin giggles like a school girl, a major contrast to her boyish looks. “I’d like to visit there one day. Maybe you can show me around?” She asks somewhat rhetorically.

 _ _She’s so cute__ , Yoohyeon thought. “Sure. Hit me up if you ever come to LA.” She answers back rhetorically.

“ ** **Oh. LA! Hollywood! I know!**** ” Bora says in broken English, trying to sound cool. She sneers at how the two younger girls have already become chummy with one another, especially Yoobin being somehow infatuated with the tall, punky American girl. Bora’s never seen her so giddy like that. Perhaps it’s the alcohol. Understandable though since they are close in age anyway. Yoobin has always been interested in trying new things while her hag self seems to be stuck in a time vacuum, not necessarily in the past but stuck in the present and not being able to move forward.

The conversation continues and after a few shots in and bellies slowly filling up they were feeling a little more relaxed. And pretty soon the conversation eventually becomes a lot more open as well.

“So, can I ask… how did you and Minji meet?” Bora asks shamelessly. “Because honestly, from what I’ve seen, she looks way out of your league.”

Yoobin perks up and kicks Bora’s leg underneath the table causing the older woman to curse out loud. Yoohyeon just smirks, her eyes narrowing into little crescent moons. It’s not like they were going to be friends after this whole ordeal is over so she didn’t care about spilling out her personal stuff. Besides, Bora was starting to look drunk right now that she’ll probably forget this whole conversation after tonight.

 

[Two years ago]

This wasn’t her scene. It was too dark and noisy. The flashes of colored lights--although beautiful as it danced throughout the building--made her head dizzy. She’d rather be in a quiet cafe engrossed in a book or tinkering with her vintage camera but she decided to go to the club, of all places. _It’s the best place to meet new people,_ her friends back home had suggested to her. Even back home she wouldn’t be in a place like this. Sure, a change of scenery was always good but this wasn’t it.

So Yoohyeon plants herself at the bar the entire time, taking tiny sips of her first and only alcoholic drink. The guy who approached her wouldn’t shut his drunken mouth but she tries to be polite to him while remaining on guard. He introduces himself with only initials. And although he told her what it stood for--even though she couldn’t hear him over the loud music--the only thing she could think of with those initials is “bowel movement” and it made her snicker every time she thought about it.

She soon realized that she should stop before she misled him for taking her little giggles as a sign of interest in him. He wasn’t bad looking at all, she thought. In fact, he’s quite handsome, tall and built. He looks like a gym rat, probably a nice guy but not very bright. She just wasn’t here for that. She just wanted to be alone, but if that’s what she wanted she should’ve just stayed in her dorm. She was fortunate that he hasn’t aggressively tried to make a move on her yet but she could tell that he was urging on something.

He said he was from “Cali” and it further confirmed her assumptions of him. He looks like those guys who drive rice rockets with the loud ass mufflers. He probably told her he was trying to become a rapper here in Seoul. He was starting to remind her of some of her friends’ ex-boyfriends from high school.

She almost gave herself away saying she’s from “Cali” too but she stops herself in case he urged on again, and then he would never leave her alone. Instead, she spoke to him in Korean trying to mask her American accent and played dumb, hoping he couldn’t see through her facade. She later excused herself to the restroom after finally getting bored with their conversation.

But as she dreaded, the restroom was windowless so there was no escape from there. She waited out for a few minutes, hoping he was too drunk that he would eventually forget about her. When she thought the coast was clear she tries to make a run for the exit but soon found herself backed into a wall. Mr. “bowel movement” hovers over her with his hulking body hiding her inside his shadow. It’s like those _kabedon_  scenes from anime. She’s seen enough of them to know what happens next.

“ ** **Hey. I gotta go, OK? It was nice meeting you.**** ” She spoke in perfect English this time, having forgotten her little ruse earlier.

His eyebrows furrowed, slightly taken aback by the change of her voice. “ ** **What? Have you been holding out on me?**** ” He spoke back in English, his tone deep and slow.

Caught. She realized. _Shit._

“ ** **Baby, you’re not gonna leave me without a goodnight kiss, are you?**** ” He croons slowly, leaning closer.

 _Baby?_  She scoffs. He doesn’t even remember her name. He obviously reeked of alcohol and it was making her nauseous now.

“ ** **Careful, you don’t want to get bitten.**** ” She warns, jutting out her chin to flash the pointy studs of her spider bite piercings gleaming on her bottom lip.

He was eyeing them earlier during their conversation, asking if they hurt. He sported a couple of ear piercings of his own and several tattoos. It did hurt, she thought, but she played it off like it was a prick of a flu shot.

She tries to slip away and that’s when he finally touched her, gripping one of her arms firmly but not so hard that he was causing pain. She panicked, having never been put into this situation before. She swallows hard and waits for the next move.

“Oh, _chagiya!_ ( _ _honey!__ ) There you are!” A voice behind them called.

Yoohyeon shifts her eyes to see a girl with fiery red hair approaching them. _Uh oh, must be “bowel movement”’s girlfriend _.__  She thought. _He’s in trouble now _.__  She sees the girl patting him on the back. She is as tall as her.

“Thanks for keeping her company. I’ll take it from here.” The girl said as she grabs Yoohyeon’s hand and twirls her away from the drunk guy. Both him and Yoohyeon looked confused.

“Y-you’re with her?” He asks Yoohyeon, his face slightly pouting and his pride suddenly hurt. She didn’t say anything because she couldn’t process the scene either. He tries to grab a hold of her again.

“Hey, man.” The red-haired girl intervenes, placing Yoohyeon behind her now. “She doesn’t want to, OK?”

“Who do you think you are?” He grew irritated now.

He tries to push past the girl this time, but her left palm to his chest blocks him. He pushes forward again clearly stronger than her and that’s when the meaty pad of her right palm strikes him squarely on the nose this time, instantly causing a gushing nosebleed. He groans, pinching his nose. Now his face changes into a raging bull eyeing a red target, a red-haired target.

The mystery girl turns her back on him, walking away, but he charges at her, grabbing her into a bear hug from behind and lifting her off the ground. That’s when she extends her left arm out as far as she could and drops a hammer fist into his groin causing him to drop her. She finishes him with a right back elbow to the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of his lungs. He hunches forward then falls to the floor like a dead tree. Karate girl winces slightly from the pain but she was more surprised that she was able to execute the moves. The club erupts with gasps and cheers then reality came back to her. She finally grabs Yoohyeon’s hand again and make their way out of the club.

They ran several blocks along the sidewalk, the girl with fiery hair hooting and hollering as they weaved through pedestrians going the opposite direction. They reached an alley where they finally caught their breaths and were sure that they weren’t being followed.

“Shit! I didn’t think that would work.” She huffs, her hand still holding Yoohyeon’s. She lets go of it and apologizes. “You OK?”

Yoohyeon nods, catching her breath as well. She was more winded than her.

“I’m fine. Thanks for that back there.”

“I saw him bugging you all night.” The girl reveals. “Thought you needed to be rescued.”

Yoohyeon was surprised that someone else had been watching her all this whole time.

“It was a bit over the top. Should’ve rescued me from the beginning.” Her voice came out breathy and it sounded a lot flirty than she wanted.

The girl laughs again, her mouth wide with a bright smile. “Minji.” She finally introduces herself, offering her hand again. She wore her watch with the face inside her wrist.

“Oh, there’s a crack.” Yoohyeon notices.

Minji rolls back the sleeve of her long black blazer and examines her wrist. “Aw, I like this watch.” She pouts, her bottom lip sticking out. Her palm is still open, waiting for Yoohyeon to return her shake. “Are you gonna leave me hanging or--?”

“Oh, right.” She takes Minji’s hand into hers again. “Ra--Yoohyeon.” She replies. Their hands felt sweaty from their run but Minji’s was still soft, her grip firm.

“You’re very pretty, Yoohyeon.” She says to her, brushing away stray strands of chestnut hair from Yoohyeon’s face.

“ ** **You’re hot.****  ” Yoohyeon gasps absentmindedly in English. “ ** **I mean, your hair, it looks hot… like fire****.” She stops herself from sounding like an idiot but it’s too late. __Very smooth, Yoo__.

One of Minji’s eyebrows rose slightly, trying to figure out the English words. But she just smiles again.

“Are you saying I am pretty too?”

Yoohyeon turns her head away, face flushed with heat from the run or from the buzz of the alcohol or from Minji’s presence. D) All of the above. She curses internally for speaking her thoughts out loud. She hears Minji snickering and sees her smiling again in the corner of her eye. It’s so bright even in the dark of the night. She felt cool fingers under her chin this time, lifting her face upward. Her eyes meet Minji’s gaze again. Her round wire glasses framed eyes that squinted into more smiles and her face sparkled as if she magically sweats glitter. She looks so gentle despite her cool attitude and her hair’s aggressive color.

“Did those hurt?” Yoohyeon was asked about her lip piercings again.

She pokes at the backing of her studs inside her mouth, making the points wiggle on the outside.

“No.” She lied again and suddenly her teeth felt __itchy__.

She was staring at Minji’s lips now and how they equally matched her hair color. Yoohyeon found herself drawing closer to those red lips until finally meeting them with her own in a collision of sweet alcohol and salty sweat crashing on her taste buds. Her night ends up in Minji’s arms in her bed thirty minutes after meeting her. Guess her friends were right after all.

 

~~

Bora nearly chokes on her shot, finally feeling the burn in her throat. “Oh, shit! I didn’t peg you to be a fast one.”

Yoobin snickers too, slightly embarrassed to hear something so personal. “Wow. I have to admit that is… wow.”

Yoohyeon grins bashfully at both of them.

“Yeah, well… how would you react if someone that hot just rescued you with such badass moves?”

They thought about it for a moment and Bora answers first.

“Yeah, I think I’d throw myself on them.”

“Yeah, you would.” Yoobin agrees which got her a jab to the rib. She winces, rubbing at her sides before busting out into high pitched drunken giggles. The ends of her mouth curled and her eyes disappeared into twinkling smiles. Yoohyeon finds her adorable. She smiles back, almost mirroring her expression.

“And you,” Yoohyeon starts this time, popping another piece of meat in her mouth. “How did you guys meet?”

“We’ve known each other since childhood.” Bora points to herself and Yoobin. “Singnie too. Went to the same school and all. I--we--” She rubs at her temples, the alcohol finally taking its effect on her. “Binnie, you tell it. I can’t think right now.”

Yoobin rolls her eyes if one could even see them right now. “Am I the record keeper or something?”

“You have a better memory than me.”

“Fortunately.” Yoobin quips then sits up straight in her chair. She thinks for a second before looking at Yoohyeon who is starting to sway a bit in her chair. She bobs her head side to side with Yoohyeon’s movements.

“Like unnie said, we’ve known each other since we’re kids. Our parents are close friends. As for their story,” She cocks her head toward Bora who is now leaning against a propped arm on the table, eyes closed. “It’s like a cheeeesy and hhh-overdramatic rom-com.” She slurs. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

Yoohyeon shrugs her shoulders. “I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What can I say? I'm JiYoo nation. =P
> 
> Sorry to do BM like that. lol At first the male character was just an unknown guy but after BM's whole big man tiddies vlive he seemed like a funny guy to insert into the story, not to mention that Yoo is a fan of Kard irl
> 
> Yoohyeon's spider bite piercing is an accidental reference to her association with the spider in DC's nightmare era. But I just randomly chose this piercing from a chart because it looks cool lol I love when I come across stuff like that.
> 
> Other quirky references include YH's use of chopsticks and her itchy teeth, how JU wears her watch, and YB's high pitched girly laugh, etc. I think when I finish the story (and it'll be awhile) I'll come up with a list of references I used in it.
> 
> The next chapter is another flashback, who else could it be? =P Also, I'm gonna start slowing down posting to at least weekly or so. Even though I'm still ahead in the writing, the next chapters need a lot of tweaking. But thanks again for reading! And as always, hit me up on twitter/cc @yodo97


	6. Chapter 6: aka dat Suayeon(bin) oneshot in the middle of this Suyoo fic lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, who put this Suayeon(bin) crackish oneshot in the middle of this angsty Suyoo fic? I did! lol
> 
> I think I overkilled doing this flashback. I had to rewrite it entirely which is why I'm late posting it. But honestly, could this little part stand alone as a oneshot? I might just repost it in a oneshots series or something.
> 
> Also, thank you for the 400+ hits so far. I'm actually feeling a little down today but writing is taking my mind off of it. Of course, your comments/likes/kudos are cheering me up. So don't worry about me.

[8 years ago]

“So, did you do it?” Yoobin asks, placing her tray down and taking her usual seat.

“What? Oh. Not yet.” Siyeon sighs defeatedly. She pokes at her food with her chopsticks, not really having much of an appetite.

It’s a brand new year and the first day back in school for the students of Fly High Fine Arts Academy. It always goes by fast, that week and a half holiday break. A few more days would be nice but it’s back to the grind. But like clockwork at noon, the childhood friends gathered at their usual table for lunch, but one person is missing.

“What? What was all that talk last month about, _‘I’m going to tell her before the year ends’_?” Yoobin recalled.

“I freaking panicked, ok?” Siyeon defended. “I had this whole script written out and when I called her around Christmas I just went blank.”

“What did you say to her?”

“Ok, pretend you’re Bora and I’m gonna call you.” Siyeon says.

“Um, O-K.” Yoobin replies reluctantly.

Siyeon imitates a ringing sound and Yoobin answers using her hand as the phone.

“Hello?”

Siyeon takes off one of her shoes and brings it to her ear. “Hi Bora, how are you?”

“What the hell are you doing?” Yoobin returns as herself, grimacing at the proximity of Siyeon’s shoe near their food.

“I need a visual!” Siyeon exclaims and returns to her dialogue. “Bora, how are you?”

Yoobin rolls her eyes. “I’m fine, you?” She says very deadpanned.

“Try sounding more like her.” Siyeon directed.

Yoobin is so over it now but she still plays along. She clears her throat and hitches her voice higher and louder. “Oh, Singnie! I’m fine! How are you?”

Siyeon flashes a thumbs up and continues to talk into her shoe phone. “Bora, we’ve been friends for a long time, right?”

“Yeah?” Yoobin answers with Bora’s voice.

“Well, remember when we used to play house when we were kids? I was the dad, and you were the mom, and Binbin was our child?”

Yoobin’s face twists with apprehension. “Yeah?” She listens on not too keen on where this conversation is heading.

“Well, what if I said that I kinda wished it was real?”

Yoobin puts her literal hand phone down. “Please tell me you really didn’t say all that? What did she say?”

“She said, _‘Singnie, I’m not sure what you’re saying.’_ ” She mimics Bora badly.

“And then?”

“And then I just panicked and ended with, _‘Haha just kidding, Merry Crisis!’_ and hung up. I said _‘Merry Crisis’_ , Bin!” She drops her shoe on the floor now.

Yoobin just stares blankly at Siyeon who’s now cowering over her crossed arms on the table. The secondhand embarrassment is too much for her. “You are hopeless, unnie.”

Yoobin has always known about Siyeon’s crush on Bora ever since they were kids. Siyeon would often confide in her although things like crushes and dating were far from Yoobin’s interests at the moment. She is more for lending an ear than giving out advice. She’s only 14 after all.

It didn’t really hit Siyeon until the beginning of her freshman year when Bora just suddenly blossomed into this beautiful young woman and now she’s bringing all the boys (and some girls) to the yard, whatever that means. Of course, naturally, Siyeon would be jealous because she had an unwritten claim to her. She is her best friend after all.

But perhaps her sudden courage to finally take a leap of faith all these years didn’t happen until last month when the guy (who shall not be named) Bora had dated for a measly six months broke up with her. And like any BFFs would do, Siyeon and Yoobin were there for her treating her to sleepovers, mani-pedis, pigging out on junk food, and singing noraebang really badly. They even held a bonfire (Siyeon’s idea, of course) to burn all the things he gave her, which almost destroyed the schoolyard.

But then one night Siyeon almost lost it. Bora had stayed over at her house because she couldn’t stay in her own room for the memories of her little teenage trysts with him in there pervaded every nook and cranny. Siyeon had to endure every little detail when Bora told her about it. Her heart broke for her and her own that she couldn’t get to Bora first so she would be spared of the heartache. And Bora clinging to Siyeon in her little bed only made it worse for her. She had to resist the urge to hold her down against the mattress and swear to her that she would never do anything to hurt her like he did, that she could treat her better than he ever had. It was becoming too much to bear for her. She had to do something about it now or let it forever consume her.

 _ _“_ Bora, I think I love you. _”__  She finally confessed, simple as that. She proceeded to let her mind free flow letting her mouth go on autopilot. She didn’t really know what she was saying but she felt her heart pounding in her ears and was sure Bora could feel it too. She waited for a response but didn’t get any. __“_ Bora? _”__

She listened but she could only hear Bora breathing softly and slowly. She’s asleep but still holding on tightly to her. She sighed, slightly relieved and disappointed. Since then she hasn’t been able to recover from that and her attempts since then only came out weird and awkward.

Yoobin just shakes her head before returning to the book she’s reading. “Speaking of Bora unnie, where is she? She’s late.”

“Good, then maybe she won’t see what a big idiot I am.” Siyeon mumbles in her arms.

A tray of food drops noisily on the table by a girl with a bright blonde bob. She takes the chair beside Siyeon, huffing and puffing.

“I’m sorry, this seat is taken.” Yoobin says irritatingly before finally making eye contact with the girl. “Oh? Bora unnie?”

Siyeon looks up from her arms and also does a double take, except her jaw has practically hit the table right now.

Bora huffs at her two friends. “Ugh, I’m mad that you guys did not say hi to me this morning.”

Yoobin tries to recall this morning. “Oh. That was you waving at us like a maniac? I thought you were one of those exchange students. It’s the hair… and the nose.”

“Yah! Do you wanna die, Bin?” She grits her teeth then turns to Siyeon and her expression changes, looking slightly surprised. “Wow, Singnie, did you get a tan? It looks nice.”

“Oh, thanks.” She says shyly, hiding behind her long straight black hair.

The three friends didn’t spend the holidays together as they were all on separate gatherings with their families. Bora went skiing up in Pyeongchang while Siyeon took to warmer weather in Jeju getting some sun on her porcelain skin. Yoobin stayed locally, catching up on the many books in her collection. Besides, she has enough family here to keep her company.

“So… what do you think?” Bora says gleefully, running her hands through her golden flaxen hair.

“Is this like a revenge makeover to get back at what’s his face?” Yoobin assumes.

“What? No! Who cares about him? Can’t a girl just get her hair did because she’s feeling herself right now?”

“Oh I’m sure someone’s feeling herself.” Yoobin side glances at Siyeon who glares at her in horror. “And it’s definitely a revenge makeover.” She confirms.

“Aish! You little--” She turns to Siyeon again. “Singnie, what do you think?”

Her hair moves in slow motion to Siyeon and suddenly her brain short circuits. “Um... same.” She answers incorrectly.

Bora pouts again. “You guys suck.”

She knew her best friends were playing with her but sometimes they just played a bit too much for her liking. But out of the three she knew she would be able to take snaps like that. Maybe that’s why they always poked fun at her the most because she had the thick skin to take it. Being the shortest one made her resort to her other strengths such as her strong personality and big, loud mouth. Messed with her and she will tear you apart with her sharp tongue. She would unleash her wrath upon her friends right now but she was still in the holiday mood so she let it slide, for now.

They spent the rest of lunch comparing who had the best Christmas presents. Siyeon spent the rest of her time drilling a hole into Bora’s head with her sharp eyes as she listened, or looked like she was listening to Bora talk and talk. When the bell rang some twenty five minutes later Bora left first. She waves goodbye to her best friends saying she’ll catch up with them later. Yoobin watches Bora skip away, that coconut hair bouncing with each step.

“Hey, I came up with a nickname for unnie.” She says to Siyeon. “Guess what it is?”

“Hm?” Siyeon hummed, still in a daze as she was for almost the entire lunch break.

“Bora the explorer!” Yoobin cries before bursting into fits of laughter.

“That’s great, Bin.” Siyeon replies vacantly which made the expression on Yoobin’s face drop.

“Oh man, you really got it bad. I practically ate your entire lunch in front of you. And you missed your chance to tell her you like her.”

Siyeon finally snaps out of her daze, noticing her nearly empty tray. “What? I don’t want to do it out here in front of everyone.”

“And I was going to pretend to be surprised but yeah, I think I would’ve gagged if you tried.”

Siyeon tugs anxiously at the track pants she wore underneath her skirt. She’s practically the only girl in school who wears her school uniform like that. “But doesn’t Bora look beautiful today?” She sighs.

“I just called her Bora the explorer a minute ago.” Yoobin replied.

Siyeon’s face finally lights up. “Ah, ha ha, I finally got it.” Then she leans on her elbows, her hands squishing her face. “What am I going to do, Bin? There’s only one year left before Bora graduates.”

Yoobin’s lips twist downward. “Please, I just want to survive the next few years of high school myself. I’m here to study music, not be your love counselor. ”

Something sparks within Siyeon and reignites the courage she had suppressed. She puffs her cheeks and balls up her fists. “You think I should go for it? I’m gonna go for it this time, like all out.”

“Yes, please, so you can spare me from having to listen to your emo diary thoughts about her everyday.”

Siyeon smacks her palms on the table now. “Then I need your help, Binbin.”

“First of all, don’t call me that, especially in school.” She hisses. “And help you with what?”

“Write a song for her. You play guitar and I’ll sing to her.”

“Wow! Like, serenade her? Isn’t that a bit excessive? Why don’t you just ask her out like normal people?”

“We go to a fine arts school, Bin. Aren’t we all a bit pretentious anyway?” Siyeon says then adds, “Besides, when have I ever done anything normally? And you’ve just heard my failed conversation with her.”

“You are absolutely right.” Yoobin resigns.

“So please, Binbin, help me out.”

“And what do I get out of this?”

Siyeon thinks for a second. “You’ll get an A in music composition class and… I’ll buy you the whole Harry Potter book series.”

Yoobin’s ears perked by Siyeon’s offer. She is a sucker for fresh new books, that crispy sound as the cover cracks open, the smell of fresh ink on new paper, and the texture of the pages on her fingertips. She was getting the tingles thinking about it, not to mention getting that A in music composition.

“Ok, fine.” She finally agrees.

A few days later Yoobin tags along with Bora to one of her dance practices after school. She sits against the mirrored wall of the dance room watching Bora practice on a dance piece for an assignment, but she soon found herself nose deep in her brand new book given to her by her other best friend. Bora asked Yoobin a question and when she didn’t answer back she plops herself down next to the bookworm and rubs her sweaty face into her neck and shoulder.

“Fuuuuuh!” Yoobin cries, pulling her book away at arm’s length to protect it but losing her page in the process. Fortunately for her Bora doesn’t smell bad, but the feeling of her briny sweat evaporating on her skin grossed her out.

“Binnie~,” Bora coos her nickname for Yoobin. That warranted an eye roll from the younger girl who was still shaking off the icky feeling. She hated the little pet names her unnies gave her but since she was the youngest she really didn’t have a say in any of it.

“If I tell you something, promise not to laugh?”

“Depends what it is.” She replied, trying to relocate her page.

“Doesn’t Singnie look cute lately?”

“If you’re into that goth-emo look.”

“I mean, I guess I’ve never really noticed how pretty she really is. She always hides behind her long hair and baggy clothes. I know we’ve done everything together, but now it’s like when we hug to say hi and goodbye it just feels different now. I don’t know what it is.”

Yoobin gives up on her book and looks on quizzically at Bora.

“She said something to me last month, it was kinda weird.”

“Oh?” Yoobin feigned ignorance, listening to Bora’s side of the story.

Then Bora spills her confession about Siyeon almost verbatim to Siyeon’s confession about Bora all these years. Yoobin just stares blankly wondering if this is the real life right now because it was starting to sound like a crazy plot from a book she’s read before, before it is ruined by the film adaptation.

“Wow!” was all she could muster out. “You guys are seriously made for each other.”

Bora gave her a questioning look, like a dog who tilts its head when it hears a whistle. Yoobin wanted to return to her book but she can see Bora in the corner of her eye looking at her like she wants to ask her something.

“What is it?” She finally acknowledges her.

Bora beams a smile. It’s almost wicked looking. “You’re in that music composition class, right? You think you can compose a song that I can put choreography to and perform a dance for Siyeon?”

The internal laugh inside Yoobin now escaped out of her mouth. “Wow! Just, wow! You can’t make this stuff up, huh?”

Bora’s face scrunches up this time. “I’m not joking, Binnie.”

“I’m not either.” She thinks for a moment then steals Bora’s wicked grin. “I know what to do. Give me a few days.” Bora hugs Yoobin excitedly, squealing just a little too close to her ear.

In the next week Yoobin would present the songs she’s composed for each of her friends, meeting them on different days, of course.

“Wow, Binbin, this sounds awesome!” Siyeon’s face lit up with delight.

She hums a melody, letting her voice float over Yoobin’s guitar playing on the track. There were hints of piano in there as well. By the end of their meeting Siyeon manages to come up with a verse and half of a chorus. She couldn’t wait for Bora to hear the finished results.

A few days later Yoobin would present her song for Bora, her reaction just as ecstatic.

“Binnie, I love it! You’re so awesome!” Bora gushes, swaying her head side to side with her headphones on.

“I know.” Yoobin says nonchalantly. Her nose is stuck in another book, the third one in the series.

Bora removes one ear cover. “But, it’s kinda slow, don’t you think? I thought it would be a little more… upbeat?”

“Like those booty shaking songs you’d be dancing to?” Yoobin gasps mockingly, but slightly offended. “That’s not my style.”

“Not all of them are booty shaking.” She frowns. “But do you think Singnie will like it?”

“I think if you sneezed she’ll fall for you.”

“What?” Bora couldn’t hear her as the headphones were back on again.

Yoobin shakes her head. She loses her place in her book again but now she was snickering inside thinking about the surprise her best friends are preparing for each other, not knowing the little twist in her plan.

D-day had finally arrived. It was a Friday afternoon after school, and both Siyeon and Bora were nervously waiting in two separate areas of the school auditorium. Yoobin has told both of them to meet her there at specific times, aka the same time. While she sets up in the sound booth room in the back she partially sees Siyeon pacing back and forth frantically backstage.

Siyeon is no stranger to the stage though, she is one of the best singers in the musical theater class. But there she was pacing back and forth with a paper towel plastered to her forehead. Yoobin swore she heard a loud howl, something Siyeon did to calm her nerves. She had to admit that she was nervous for her as well.

And right as the clock strikes 3, the doors of the auditorium burst wide open and in comes Bora waltzing down the aisle making a very loud entrance, as usual. She marches toward the stage and catches a pair of eyes of someone backstage.

“Singnie? What are you doing here?” She asks, darting her eyes around the auditorium. She was hoping to get one more practice in before Siyeon showed up but that’s not happening now.

“Bora!?” Siyeon’s voice cracks from behind the curtain. “You’re h-here already?” The paper towel on her forehead flutters to the floor.

“Binnie told me to meet her here at this time.”

“Binbin? She told me to meet her here too.”

Bora climbs up on stage and stands next to her. “Speaking of which, where is she?”

Suddenly the lights dimmed low and a bright spotlight hit both girls where they stood on the stage. A mic turned on, sending screeching feedback throughout the auditorium.

“Ah, ah, testing…” A deep voice echoed.

“ _Hana-nim?_  (God?)” Siyeon gasps.

“I love you guys but sometimes you are the biggest idiots I’ve ever met.” Says the youngest of the trio.

“Why do you say that, hana-nim?” Siyeon replies again, shielding her eyes from the spotlight.

“Dummy, that’s Binnie.” Bora hissed. Perhaps she was having second thoughts now. She turns toward the voice and yells. “Yah! What’s the meaning of this, Bin?”

“Are you guys ready?” Her voice booms.

They scrambled into their positions, Siyeon grabs the mic and Bora straightens her posture, an arm up poised and ready. They glanced at each other awkwardly.

“Um, Bora, wouldn’t it be better for you to sit down in the audience?” Siyeon suggested.

“Actually, if you don’t mind I have something to show you,” Bora replies.

“What are you--” Siyeon says but gets cut off by the ticking of a metronome. It counts down and the music track began to play. Siyeon immediately starts singing.

 _I’m still lost_  
_I don’t know where to go_  
_It’s not getting any better_

On any given day Siyeon would dominate the stage with her charismatic stage presence, but right now her palms and forehead were sweating like crazy. She hoped it was just the lights and nerves and not some crazy fever brewing from that mystery meat she had for lunch earlier.

While Siyeon sang, Bora gracefully moved her body to the slow rhythm of the guitar and piano, dancing to a mixture of ballet and contemporary styles. She glides and leaps across the stage in a very fluid motion, her angles strong and her lines delicate. Then she comes to a part where she would twirl in a big circle but Siyeon was in the center of it, like being in the eye of a tornado.

“What are you doing?” Bora mouths to her, managing not to break her flow.

If Siyeon was improvising to her dance track then Bora is thoroughly impressed. As the music swells Siyeon’s voice belts higher and louder as Bora’s movements quicken and intensify.

 _Far away over there_  
_Slowly_  
_I hear and feel the rain_

 _Close your eyes and tell me_  
_It’s alright, it’s alright_  
_Like this_  
_So trust me_

Siyeon follows Bora with her eyes, not breaking eye contact with her. She was mesmerized at how in sync Bora was with the music especially this being her first time hearing the song. It’s almost as if Yoobin gave them the exact... same... song…

It finally clicked and the two crushes both stopped what they were doing. The music continued to play in the background like a soundtrack to a movie scene. They slowly walked toward to each other sharing the same perplexed look. They were a mere two feet apart until the music faded and Yoobin’s voice came back on.

“Oh my god, that actually worked!” She surprised herself.

It finally broke their eye contact as they both turned toward Yoobin in the sound booth.

“What the hell is going on, Binnie?” Bora scowls. “Did you give us the same song?”

“Oh, really?” Siyeon realizes now. “I thought you were just hella good at improvising.”

“W-what if I was?” Bora tries to say coolly.

“She wasn’t.” Yoobin denies her.

“Shut it, Bin!” She yells before turning to Siyeon again. There’s a look in her eyes now that Bora has not noticed before, something like longing and fear colliding into one another. She is visibly trembling right in front of her. Bora closes the gap between them, taking Siyeon’s clammy hands into hers.

“Singnie—” She says with tender concern but Siyeon cuts her off.

“I wanted to tell you something for a long time. I tried to tell you over the holiday.”

“Merry Crisis?” Bora recalls and Siyeon cringes with embarrassment.

“Bora—“

“Did you really mean it?” Bora cuts her off this time. “That night, at your house?”

Siyeon chokes on her words. “Y-you heard me?”

Bora nods. “Everything.”

“I— yes.”

Bora’s face tenses, her lips tightening into a scowl. Siyeon can’t tell if she’s angry or not but she is scared shitless right now.

“You’re my best friend, Bora. But I’ve always known for sure that I’ve always liked you more than that. And it always scares the hell out of me that I might be risking our friendship if I ever told you how I really felt. But I don’t want to regret it for the rest of my life if I never told you either.”

Siyeon lowers her head, her hair covering her face to hide tears that started to fall. Bora quickly steps in, taking her hands to cup Siyeon’s face now. She felt tears forming in her own eyes.

“Singnie, you’re my best friend. We’ve practically done everything together. I don’t think there’s anything you can do to ruin our friendship except not be my friend. You know you can tell me anything. Just say it.”

Siyeon takes a deep breath. “Kim Bora, will you go out with me and be my girlfriend?” She finally makes it official.

“Only if you, Lee Siyeon, will go out with me and be my,” She pauses for a second and smiles, “my girlfriend?”

Siyeon doesn’t hesitate and nods her head. “Hell, yeah!”

They finally made eye contact, looking misty-eyed and sweating. Bora pulls Siyeon into a hug though she had to tiptoe to get her arms around her shoulders. Their foreheads touch then Bora tries closing the gap again leaning in to meet Siyeon’s lips but the sound of heavy breathing, like Darth Vader, amplified through the speakers interrupted the moment. Bora huffs toward the sound.

“Binnie, do you mind?”

“Sorry,” Yoobin whispers into the mic before turning it off.

Bora and Siyeon held hands again. They decide to save the kiss for later, for another time when they’re absolutely alone. They heard a lone sound of applause as Yoobin appears in the aisle walking toward them, slightly sniffling. “That was beautiful.”

“Are you crying, Bin?” Bora noticed.

“I’m not crying, you’re crying.” She denied.

“Oh Binbin, our child! Come join your parents. The family’s finally come together.” Siyeon jokes.

“Hell, no! I grew out of that a long time ago.”

“Dear, it seems our child is a little rebel.” Siyeon turns to Bora.

“Oh, no. Whatever are we going to do?” Bora joins in.

“I hate you guys! Stop it before I regret ever helping you out.” Yoobin whines, causing the other two to laugh out loud, their voices reverberating throughout the auditorium like a laugh track of a studio audience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ngl, I wanna cry now. lol I've made the original couples too soft and cute and it makes me sad of what will happen inevitably. Is it too late to change my mind and redact this whole story and let everyone live happily ever after? lol jk jk I swear I'll make this story worth it. So trust me ;)
> 
> Also, after this the story should start picking up or going down, depending on how you look at it. lol
> 
> hmu @ yodo97 on Twitter/Curious Cat


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for your kudos & comments and 530+ hits!
> 
> We now return to your scheduled angst. lol

“Wow.” Was all Yoohyeon could say, her little mouth forming a pouty O, but her lip ring made it look like a Q. She smiles giddily, touched by the story. “That’s actually really sweet.” It sounded much better than her little love at first one night stand.

“Ah, but those two.” Yoobin shakes her head. “They’re such a handful. And after all that I only got a B for that song in class. Freaking B! You know, they actually broke up after high school and--”

“Binnie-ah!” Bora interrupts. “That’s enough. And ohh, that blonde bowl cut. I thought I’ve rid myself of that memory.”

“You’re the one who got it _did_ like that!” Yoobin counters.

The table roars with high pitched drunken giggles. Everything’s simmering down to a laid back mood now, slow and lethargic. Bora and Yoobin continue to roast each other as best friends do, sharing their childhood stories about each other and Siyeon. They were too drunk to realize the sadness that laced their sweet stories, especially with Siyeon in her current condition. Yoohyeon thinks of her own friends back home in California. There weren’t that many, and she barely made any here other than a few uni classmates whom she since lost contact with. Minji is practically the only person she really knows here in Korea.

Yoohyeon smiles bittersweetly, her cheeks felt warm even though she drank a lot less than the other two. She tries to go inside in her mind digging deep into her thoughts, but the alcohol was telling her to just let it go for tonight. Also, Bora’s loud mouth hindered her concentration, she just could not be unheard. So she gives up thinking.

“Do you still dance?” She asks Bora.

She shakes her head. “No time.”

“Unnie is the best though.” Yoobin jumps in again, her arm hanging on Bora’s shoulder. “You know Sunmi sunbae? They’ve trained together. Unnie would’ve been at her level right now if she had kept going.”

“Hush, Bin!” Bora shoves Yoobin off her, slightly embarrassed.

“Don’t let her modesty fool you. She tells this story allll the time.”

“Biiin!”

They’re close like siblings, Yoohyeon can tell. She thought of her own family now and how she misses them too. They would’ve been surprised to see her return home. They weren’t expecting her to be back from Korea so soon.

As the night went on the restaurant only got busier, the patrons rowdier and drunker with each hour passed. A heavily inebriated ahjusshi breaks out into a song which causes everyone else to join in drunken harmonization. Never a dull moment here in Seoul, it seems. There’s always life happening even when the world is supposed to be sleeping.

The three women have stopped eating a while ago, bellies full of more bellies of the pork variety, but the drinks kept coming and guess who’s serving them?

“Come on, I can’t finish this by myself. Help me out here.” Bora implores the younger ones.

“That’s all you unnie, and I have seen you down an entire bottle by yourself.”

“TMI, Bin. You sound like a freaking tabloid exposing everyone’s shit.”

“Well, I am friends with miss scandal queen after all.” Yoobin answers smartly.

Bora attacks her sides again with her sharp little fingers. Yoobin’s high pitched giggles were contagious and Yoohyeon has practically fallen for them now.

“Anyway, _Lei-cheol_ …” Bora sings-songs Yoohyeon’s English name, shaking the bottle in her hand.

Yoohyeon sees Yoobin shaking her head as if to tell her that she doesn’t have to. She looks at the emerald bottle in Bora’s hands. There’s not much left. If this will get her to shut up then she’ll take one for the team.

“Fuck it! Let’s do it!” She holds out her shot glass to Bora with both hands.

“Woo! That’s the spirit!” Bora bellows as she pours her another glass.

Yoohyeon toasts to her before turning to the side to drink it down. She’s about to put her shot glass down but Bora comes back with another round and she couldn’t say no.

One shot.

Two shots.

Three shots.

She feels like she’s going to burst now, the food baby inside her tummy about to reach full term. She could give birth to the pig she just ate… or throw it back up. But she feels numb again, a different kind of numb from last night, but numb enough to forget the swirling thoughts of the what ifs that occupied her mind. She should stop but Bora kept pouring and she didn’t know how to stop her. Fortunately Yoobin intervenes at the sight of Yoohyeon’s sick face.

“Unnie, I think that’s enough. She said she’s lightweight.”

Yoohyeon exchanges a thoughtful glance as if to thank Yoobin for saving her.

“Fine.” Bora pours the rest for herself.

Yoohyeon sighs. She could feel the alcohol vapors escaping through her breath. If she can get close enough to the grill’s flame she could probably breathe fire. She closes her eyes for a second, still sitting up in her chair but Bora’s drunken voice interrupts her thoughts again.

“So, like, what do you do about money?” She asks, treading on a rather touchy subject. “The city’s expensive, you can’t be making that much with a student visa.”

Yoohyeon doesn’t answer at first, carefully choosing her words but mostly because she was trying to figure out what Bora was getting at.

“I get by just fine. Don’t need much.” She says quietly hoping that was vague but satisfactory enough for Bora to not pry any further. But she doesn’t seem to like that answer.

“I bet you get pink envelopes from Minji too, huh?” She says and Yoobin kicks her under the table again but she doesn’t care this time, she keeps going. “Is she like a Sugar Mommy and you guys are like, sugar babies or some shit?” She laughs it off like it’s a joke but there’s a caustic bite in her words.

That made Yoohyeon slam her fists on the table, making the tiny plates of side dishes rattle. Embers fluttered from the grill. Even in Yoohyeon’s drunken state Bora’s words still creep into a crack in the wall she’s built around herself.

“Don’t ever fucking say that about Minji!” She fumes. She stands up, almost wobbling over but her heavy boots grounded her. She pulls out her wallet and from it a generous amount of bills enough to pay for everyone’s meal with change. She throws it down on the table before leaving. “Thanks for dinner.”

“Yah! Come back here! You trying to embarrass me right now?” Bora raises her voice. “Show some respect, American brat!”

A few patrons looked their way but soon carried on with their own drunk shenanigans. Apparently things like this happen all the time.

Yoohyeon turns around still fuming. “Where I’m from, you have to earn it!”

Bora puffs her cheeks. “Do you even know where you are right now?”

“That’s exactly what’s wrong with this place. Fuck this Confucius shit!”

“What the hell is wrong with you? You got something to say? Say it to my face!”

Yoohyeon scowls, trying to think of something snappy but her mind is scrambled right now. She just blurts out the first thing that came to mind. “Is your nose even real? That’s a terrible nose job.”

“WHAT?!” Bora jumps out of her chair. “Yah! Yah! Come back here! You little--”

Yoobin finally intervenes, stopping Bora from charging at Yoohyeon. She tells her to go back to the table and she obeys, not because she wanted to or that Yoobin asked nicely but because she was in no shape to be moving around right now. Yoobin soon catches up to Yoohyeon who’s about to cross the street.

“Rachel, wait!” She grabs her wrist and turns her around, almost pulling her into her arms. “You can’t go back by yourself. At least let me call a cab for you.”

Yoohyeon places her hands on each of Yoobin’s shoulders for balance. Her thin icy fingers find their way to her jawline. “You are too sweet, Yoobin. I’m fine. I just need to walk this off.” She says cupping Yoobin’s cheeks now. They’re soo freaking soft, like mochi. She wants to squeeze the hell out of them right now.

Yoobin swallowed nervously at the closeness of Yoohyeon’s face to hers. This isn’t the first time someone wanted to tear her cheeks off. She winces from Yoohyeon’s cold touch and takes her hands from her face and holds them lightly in her own hands. “I’m sorry about unnie,” She apologizes, “It’s best to leave when she’s like that because she’s not gonna stop.” She lets go of their hands, the icy feeling still lingered on her fingertips.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Yoohyeon says. The walk light turns green and she turns her heels again, staggering across the street.

“Be careful!” She heard Yoobin behind her. She just waves a hand, not looking back.

~~

Bora hits the bed hard. It’s like concrete and it felt just as cold.

“You were doing so well until your drunk ass had to go too far.” Yoobin huffs disappointedly. She collapses on the couch having to drag and carry Bora’s dead weight back to her hotel room. “It’s not all about you, you know? She’s going through it as much as you are.”

“I’m sorry, Binnie. I’m just going through it.” Bora repeats.

“We all are. But we still have to be rational about it. It’s OK to be emotional but you can’t take it out on others.”

Bora just lies there like a sack of potatoes in day old clothes, now reeking of smoke and alcohol. Her hair drapes over her face, loose strands flying upward with each breath. Yoobin returns to adjust her position in case she needed to vomit.

“I hate that girl. It’s all her fault. If she didn’t break up with her girlfriend, then she wouldn’t have taken my Singnie away.”

“Unnie, don’t say that. Until one of them wakes up then we’ll never know what really happened. Stop torturing yourself with these thoughts.”

“You’re just saying that ‘cause you think that _Migook_ is cute.”

Yoobin rolls her eyes. “It’s called being nice. Try it sometime, unnie.” She knows Bora’s just drunk talking but her words really do rub people the wrong way.

“And it’s real! Why does everyone fucking think my nose is not real?” Bora whines, going off on a tangent. She flails her arms and legs like a child with a tantrum.

Yoobin manages to let out a chuckle.“They’re just jealous of a natural queen.” She replies, grateful for the comic relief but it doesn’t last long. There is a moment of silence where nothing but heavy breathing and the electric buzzing of the light fixture filled the room. Then Bora speaks again.

“I told her to die, Binnie.” She mumbles. “I told Singnie I wish she’d just died in the accident. I don’t want to hear what she has to say.”

Yoobin sighs sadly. She makes room for herself on the creaky hotel bed and holds her dear friend. She feels her sobbing into the crook of her neck, moisture of warm alcohol tinged breath and salty tears absorbing into her shirt.

“Am I a bad person, Binnie?”

“No, you’re not. You have every right to feel what you’re feeling right now. It’s all part of the process. It’s OK to be upset right now. I know you don’t really mean it.”

She feels Bora’s arms tighten around her. “But what if I do mean it?”

“You don’t. You’re just drunk.” Yoobin says firmly.

“I hate that I’ve become this way. All of us.”

Yoobin just nods in agreement. Life and time has taken a toll on the three childhood friends where they were once young, innocent, and thinking big dreams. And then the real world happened and now they’ve become the most burned out, stressed out, and pressured generation of their time. The old folks would just criticize them for not trying or working hard enough, but that’s not the case. They don’t understand. It’s just a completely different time now. But it’s made Bora bitter and cynical of the world around her.

“It’s not fair, Bin. Why does Singnie have it the worse?” Bora struggles to speak with each breath. “What am I gonna do… when she pulls through? What did I do to deserve this? Am I being punished?”

“Hey, we don’t know why things like this happen. But you can’t blame yourself.”

“I think I pushed her too far this time.”

Yoobin swallows a lump in her throat. Inside her mind were little details that could fill some of the holes of Bora’s unsolved mystery. She wants to tell her but Bora’s in no shape to think and remember coherently at the moment. It would be just a waste of breath. So she decides it’s best to hold it in for now, for a better and later time. Besides, she doesn’t know the whole story either.

She stays with Bora for a while, helping her out of her stale clothes and into fresh clean pajamas she brought from Bora’s place. Then she fiddles with her phone, killing time to read a few pages of an ebook she’s downloaded for she was never without some type of book, whether physical or digital. When she does a final check, she makes sure that Bora is safe and oriented enough to be on her own. She wants to stay with her but the bread is not going to get itself. She’ll just have to find some way to take time off. She kisses the top of Bora’s head before letting herself out.

Yoobin's eyes were still glued to her phone as she reaches the first floor.  She walks alongside the walls when somebody accidentally bumps into her. “Hey! Watch it-- Oh, Rachel?”

The taller girl staggers to get her footing, heavy boots stomping on the floor. She looks up and when she realizes it’s Yoobin she gives her a toothy smile. “Hey.”

“Did you just get back?” Yoobin checks the time. It had been almost an hour and a half since the confrontation.

“Took the scenic route.” Yoohyeon jokes but she actually got lost halfway.

Yoobin frowns. “Look, I’m sorry about Bora. She’s just--her and Siyeon. It’s been--”

Yoohyeon just raises a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve already seen the dark side.”

Yoobin continues to apologize as Yoohyeon staggers toward her room.

“Hey, I don’t know if it’s my place to say but,” Yoobin looks around cautiously. “I think I recognized Minji. She’s been to several of me and Siyeon’s shows.”

Yoohyeon’s ears perked a bit. She just simply nods. What else is new?

“I swear I didn’t even know anything was going on. I thought she was just a fan. I mean, if anything, I’m just as upset at Siyeon as Bora is. I didn’t think she was capable of doing something like this.” She sighs, obviously frustrated. “But I just wanna say, give Bora unnie a chance. She really is a good person. I mean, I wouldn’t be her friend if she wasn’t.”

Yoohyeon nods again. “Thank you, Yoobin. Goodnight.”

Yoobin smiles before remembering another thing. “Oh, wait!”

She stops the door from closing. She reaches into her pocket and shoves something into Yoohyeon’s hand. She looks down and sees a wad of cash stuffed into her palm.

“Is this?” She looks up at Yoobin. “Why?”

“I couldn’t let you do that, especially since unnie provoked you. My conscience would bother the hell out of me. Don’t tell Bora unnie. Her pride and ego’s already bruised enough.”

Yoohyeon purses her lips. She feels bad that Yoobin has done this. “You’re too good for your own good, you know that?”

“So I’ve been told.” Yoobin replies shyly.

Yoohyeon takes a **₩** 20,000 bill from the wad and slips it into the front pocket of Yoobin’s buttoned shirt. “For your ride back home.”

“I have a car.”

“Oh. Right. Then, for a rainy day.” She pats the pocket, unintentionally copping a feel.

Yoobin just smiles apologetically again and says her goodnight.

Yoohyeon’s legs gave out as she crashes on the couch, tired and sore from walking several blocks back to the hotel. She rolls on to her back staring at the piss colored light fixture above her.

_Sugar mommy. Sugar baby._

She cringes at the words. But if she was being honest, Bora wasn’t too far off. It may look like that from an outsider’s perspective, but she just doesn’t know the whole story. She stares at the money Yoobin returned to her, still balled up in her hand. If she had told her that it all came from Minji, would Yoobin think of her differently? She’s sure that Bora would be giving off smug looks for her assumptions.

She realizes that she is running low now and probably has enough money for at least one more month. She still needed another ticket home. She hated the thought of borrowing from Minji one last time but knowing her she probably wouldn’t mind giving it to her.

She reaches for her duffle bag on the coffee table and rummages through it, finding a crumpled rectangular piece of paper. She looks at it, examines it, checking its legitimacy. It’s a check with a very generous amount of money written to her.

_“I’m sorry, I don’t need your charity.” She had said to the owner of the check._

_“Keep it. For a rainy day.”_

She shudders at the words, the same words she just said to Yoobin just a few minutes ago. She hates looking at it and what it represents. She wants to rip it, burn it, get rid of it,  but it could be her only ticket back home. Yoohyeon tosses it and the cash back into the bag and takes herself to the bed now. She wishes this whole ordeal would be over soon so she can just go back home. So she can move on and forget that her existence in Korea ever happened. So she would not have to deal with that loud mouth woman. It was only just last night that it was that woman who had comforted her during her breakdown. But now she wants nothing to do with her.

She channeled her frustrations toward Minji now for doing something so foolish as messing around with someone else’s girlfriend. Minji is always careful, always precise, making sure there were no loose ends. She is a professional woman for crying out loud. But then again, could it be her fault for making Minji act this way? Did she drive Minji into such a state of despair that she was not being herself? That ever present guilt crept up inside her again. She’ll never forgive herself if that was the truth.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, what goes on?
> 
> And can I say that the MVP of the recent chapters is Yoobin? Originally her role in the story was almost nonexistent when I started writing this story but now I like that she’s become this voice of reason to keep Bora in check. Lol 
> 
> Hmu @yodo97 on Twitter/CuriousCat Thanks!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who wants another flashback?
> 
> Um, don't know what to say this time. I just had to post it so I can stop revising it for the 100th time. lol Like I've said in the last chapter the story's picking up now so I have to really make sure these chapters from now on are well thought up. But anyway, enjoy!
> 
> Thanks for the 626+ hits!

[Two years ago]

Yoohyeon wakes up in a strange room. The ceilings above her were higher than normal, making her feel really small. This is definitely not her little dorm. She is in a huge bed alone, the super soft sheets still clinging to her naked body. Now she can see that they are a rosy blush color. She looks around and doesn't see anyone, doesn't see her. It's as if she was a dream, a very vivid figment of her imagination for the only thing she knows is her name. She listens for any sounds but it's dead silent. At least Minji gave her the decency to do the walk of shame alone without being seen. For all the times she's teased her friends about theirs, it finally happens to her.

She gets up and locates her clothes which were easy to spot since they were the only dark colored things in this bright and soft colored room. It was also immaculately clean, not a single thing out of place except herself. In the vanity mirror, she can see that her chestnut hair is all over the place. Apparently, sex hair looks no different from bed hair but the running mascara and the soft red lipstick smeared across her mouth and jaw gave it away. She was relieved that the little love bites Minji left were in discrete areas where clothing can easily cover them. They were like soft splashes of pink watercolor blooms on her skin and she can still feel them.

She takes herself to the master bathroom now to wash off the evidence of last night, and might as well take advantage of the amenities before she yeets herself out of there. She takes her time to touch every little thing in the bathroom. Everything looks high quality and expensive, and she wonders who she's got herself involved with. Even the towels feel like plush blankets. She picks up a small glass tube of perfume which she smelled on Minji in the alley and in bed. She tucks it into her jeans pocket, thinking Minji won't miss it. Once freshly washed, she checks herself once over again, making sure she looks presentable. Her face looks tired but she surprisingly slept well. She gathers the rest of her belongings and finally exits the bedroom.

She finds herself now in a long hallway wondering if she's in a house or an apartment. There had to be at least four or five rooms here. It was a straight hallway but she still felt lost in it. The walls were covered with pastel floral wallpaper and paintings of more flowers hung on them. It looks like a model home. But Yoohyeon soon finds the opening into the living room.

Her nose immediately fills with the smell of food cooking, making her mouth water but she had to get out of there. But she freezes in her position when she sees a lone woman in the kitchen humming and singing daintily, in her own little world.

_"Why did you come, why did you come, why did you come to my house?"_

How ironic she should sing those words because Yoohyeon didn't know why she was here either.

_"I came to find, came to find, came to find flowers"_

She is dressed in an oversized white button-down shirt and nothing else for the shirt ends with long shapely legs sloping down to pink painted toes.

_"What flowers did you come, did you come to find?"_

Her red hair is now up in a messy bun and held together with a pen. She still has her round glasses on but baring a natural face this time.

_"I came to find, came to find, came to find lily flowers..."_

_"Rock, paper..._ shit! _"_

Minji recoils back. Something cooking on the stove had popped, almost burning her. It wasn't until she finally turns around that she notices Yoohyeon staring at her from the living room.

"Oh, shit! You scared me!" Minji clutches at her chest, the other hand holding a spatula in a fighting stance. Realizing who it is she flashes that bright smile again. "Good morning."

Yoohyeon is speechless, how does one carry on as if a one night stand didn't just happen last night? Minji looks like a CF model and whatever she's trying to sell Yoohyeon wants to buy it all. Like that spatula in her hand, in fact, she wants to be that spatula, held firmly in her grip.

"Um, am I speaking a foreign language or something?" Minji felt left hanging again.

Yoohyeon snaps out from her daze. "Sorry. I-- I'm just gonna go. Sorry." She looks for a door that appears to be the entrance and heads toward it.

"Yoohyeon!" Minji calls to her. She remembers her name and the way it comes out her mouth made YooHyeon shudder from the memories of last night. She's pretty sure Minji heard an audible "Unf," from her. Yoohyeon turns around to face her. "Please, stay." Minji pleads. "At least have some breakfast before you go. I insist."

Yoohyeon says nothing as she approaches the granite countertop, the only thing separating herself and Minji. Her presence is glowing so bright it's blinding. She can't seem to focus on any part of her without feeling like she's about to burn from the heat Minji's radiating. Or maybe it's coming from the stove but Yoohyeon felt so--

"Thirsty?" Minji slides a glass of water toward her.

Yoohyeon takes it with both hands and brings it to her parched lips. " _You have no idea."_ She whispers before drinking it eagerly.

"I see you've helped yourself to my things." Minji notices her squeaky clean appearance and the little glass tube of perfume in Yoohyeon's hand.

"Oh, sorry." She places the perfume on the counter, feeling embarrassed now.

Minji shakes her head, "Keep it." She says then asks, "So, how do you like your eggs?"

Yoohyeon has prepared herself to automatically answer this pickup line if she was ever hit on. So when she blurts out, "Unfertilized," she quickly realizes that Minji was asking a genuine question about food. The older girl just casts a confused look.

" **Shit!** " Yoohyeon curses in English then facepalms herself. " **Yoo, you're an idiot.** "

She heard a raspy chuckle, almost unladylike coming from Minji.

"Hey, relax. Things like this happen when it's your first." She says coyly.

"What makes you think it's my first?" Yoohyeon retorts, slightly offended.

"The panicking for one. And you may have mentioned 'I've never done this before.' last night."

The heat was burning Yoohyeon again. It's too early to be feeling like this. Good thing her damped hair masked the sweat dripping behind her neck.

"Well, what's supposed to happen after something like this?"

"You think too much, don't you? Just chill, have breakfast and we'll go from there." Minji smiles again as she returns to her cooking.

She's so confident, Yoohyeon thinks. She wonders how many people Minji's been with and what lucky number she is. But little does she know that Minji feels just as mortified as her even if it wasn't her first. Luckily she turns back around using the cooking as an excuse to hide the redness that slowly crept up her neck and face. And also fortunately for her with the line of work she does one has to be cool, bold, and confident in every situation.

"Over easy." Yoohyeon says.

"Excuse me?"

"Over easy, my eggs."

Minji nods, feeling her chest flutter a bit. "Sure."

They ate their breakfast in silence but it was lovely and delicious, Yoohyeon thought. Minji has cooked up a Korean style breakfast of kimchi fried rice topped with her over easy eggs. It's almost the way her mother makes it back home. Minji seems to enjoy eating, smiling and absentmindedly making sounds of delight. She can definitely be one of those people who makes mukbang videos online and Yoohyeon could watch her for hours.

A pink box off to the side on the counter kept catching Yoohyeon's eye. It's from a popular cafe and bakery called Tokki's, a place she frequently goes to.

"I see you eyeing it." Minji notices. "Please, have one." She takes the box and opens it to Yoohyeon. Inside were a variety of pastries, particularly fruit tarts.

"Thank you. I love these." Yoohyeon says taking one from the box. It was the first food she ate when she got off the plane in Seoul. There was a Tokki's inside the airport. She bites into a strawberry tart, the tanginess of the fruit made her dimple pucker.

"That's good to hear. I manage a few locations." Minji finally reveals what she does.

"Oh? That's cool." She looks around Minji's extravagant apartment. Must be doing well. That explains why everything looks so expensive.

"You don't sound like you're from here," Minji states the obvious.

"Do I stick out that much?" Yoohyeon wonders what gives her away.

"Other than your English is perfect, I think it's the lip piercings more than anything. People here just don't look like that. And by the way, they are a bit rough."

Minji pulls the collar of her shirt slightly, revealing faint scratch marks along her collar bone. Yoohyeon blushes.

"Sorry." She apologizes. "I kinda just got them on a whim. I was such a scrawny kid and I always got picked on. So I got them when I was old enough, thinking they'd look intimidating, I guess."

"Aww," Minji coos, her hand to her chest. "Intimidating? With that face? Not so much. Besides, I didn't say it was a bad thing."

Everything Minji says and does makes Yoohyeon's stomach do gymnastic sized flips. She ends up sharing why she came to Seoul from California and how she's been getting around. Minji seems genuinely sweet, listening very attentively to everything Yoohyeon says. She doesn't look like someone who would be involved in a one night stand. She's a little suspicious about that but Yoohyeon's too busy letting her eyes wander around Minji's figure, taking in all her details and committing them to memory.

"What brought you to the club? It doesn't seem like your scene." Minji asks.

"It's not. My friends back home said it'd be a good place to meet new people."

"Were they right?"

"Still thinking about it." She says trying not to sound too forward, or desperate. "And you?"

"To meet new people." Minji answers bluntly.

"And did it work?"

"Let me ask," Minji props her elbow and leans against her fist then looks at YooHyeon again. "Did it work?"

YooHyeon smirks, trying not to fall for her charms this time but it's really hard when Minji's looking at her like that. "Oh. Your elbow?" She notices a bruise forming on Minji's right arm.

"Ah, it's OK. Comes with the territory." She jokes.

"What? So by day you manage cafes and by night you go around getting into fights and saving damsels in distress?"

"Would you be impressed if that was true?" Minji smirks and Yoohyeon's stomach ends up flipping again.

"Maybe."

"Then... yes?"

Yoohyeon rolls her eyes. "Where did you learn such badass moves? You almost killed that guy."

"Hardly. Though it was over the top like you said." She laughs. "If I'm not working or eating, then I'm at the gym. They had a self defense class there one time so I decided to check it out and learned a couple of moves. Feels kinda good to finally put them to use." She flexes her arms playfully which got a snicker from Yoohyeon. "Plus, I work with pastries for crying out loud. If I don't go to the gym, I'd be like that blueberry girl in the _Wheeli Wohnka_ movie."

Yoohyeon smiles at the reference and how Minji's accent pronounces _Willy Wonka_. She works out, she realized. She definitely felt it by the way Minji's hands and arms handled her last night. So strong yet gentle. The bulging veins on her hands were like highways on a map leading her to the rest of her solid physique, yet her face is so delicate.

"Oh. It definitely shows."

Minji smirks again. "Speaking of injuries... If you don't mind me asking, that scar, how did--"

Minji's phone rings, interrupting her question. She answers it and looks at the time. "Oh crap, I'm sorry. I almost forgot. I'll be there as soon as possible." She hangs up and apologizes to Yoohyeon this time. "Sorry. I forgot I had something to do this morning."

Yoohyeon felt like she overstayed her welcome anyway and quickly excuses herself out but not before Minji stops her to hand her something.

"Hey, this may seem strange especially since we just met but I'd like to give you something." She slips something into Yoohyeon's hand, a pink envelope with some weight to it. Yoohyeon peeks inside and gasps.

Their reactions are always the same, Minji huffs inside her head, already playing out the scene. They get all excited, take the money, and thank her only to never be seen again. How disappointing, she kinda liked this one.

"What the hell is this? Are you paying me for being with you?" YooHyeon asks. Their lovely conversation from earlier just flew out the window and now she felt used all of a sudden.

This wasn't the response Minji was expecting, her face twists in horror. "Um, do you not want it?"

"Why would you think I'd want it?"

No one has reacted to her in this way so Minji stumbles with her responses. "I--I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that. Consider it a welcome gift. I just like helping out. I give regularly to charities and stuff." That part is true.

"And now I'm one of your little charity cases too?"

"Shit, no! Of course not. Fuck, I didn't realize how bad that looked. I'm terribly sorry. So much for trying to be nice."

Seeing Minji falling apart in front of her was strangely amusing and YooHyeon felt bad for carrying on a little too long. Minji looks like she's about to cry. But if this is any indication that she wasn't some rich playgirl who just beds and forgets anyone she encounters, then Yoohyeon might forgive her. She looks at the money again.

"No, thanks," She shoves the envelope back to Minji which catches her off guard. She tries to leave again but Minji stops her again.

"Wait!" She tugs lightly on YooHyeon's shirt sleeve. "Ok, maybe I was trying to test you."

"Test me?" YooHyeon pulls away from Minji's grip.

"To see if you knew who I am. To see if you're just another gold digger after my money."

YooHyeon's brows furrowed. "Am I supposed to know who you are?" She's curious but right now she's furious.

"No, not really," Minji says quietly this time.

"Soo... everything that happened just now, even last night, didn't mean anything?"

"No-- of course it meant something if it meant something to you. It's just-- it's just hard to trust anyone these days. And... maybe you're the first person I've ever gotten this far with."

Yoohyeon should be flattered but she just casts her a judging look. "Bullshit!"

"It's true! Most people would just walk away with the money and that's how I know they're not worth my time. I thought you'd take the bait like everyone else but you're the first person to turn it down."

People? Then she definitely wasn't the only one. She'd be lying to herself if she said that didn't bother her. "Oh, great! Does that mean I passed? Do I win a prize?" YooHyeon says sarcastically, trying to hide the humiliation that was taking over her now.

"Yes—I mean, I was hoping you wouldn't take it because... maybe I do want to see you again. Let me take you on a proper date. A do-over. If you want." All that cool, charismatic charm from earlier disappeared and now Minji looks like an awkward teenager asking out her crush. "But I understand if you don't want to anymore. I fucked up."

This was all sudden for Yoohyeon. Were people here in Korea this forward? If this is Minji's way of asking out someone on a date then she really needs to work on it. So much for first impressions. Yoohyeon eyes the envelope in Minji's hand and looks at her again.

"Keep your money." She says. Minji's jaw tenses, her face looking dejected from YooHyeon's presumed rejection. "That would have been an automatic three strikes. But since you did rescue me last night and made this nice little breakfast for me, I suppose I'll give you another chance."

Minji looks so confused at this point. None of the scenarios she thought of played out, not that she wanted those to happen.

"So..." She murmurs.

Yoohyeon raises her eyebrows. "So, yes, I'm saying I would like to go out with you."

There was a few seconds delay before it finally hits Minji, and when it did her face lights up with shock that her eyes misted a little.

"You w-will? Then can I have your number, p-please?"

"I don't have a phone yet," Yoohyeon confesses. Since her arrival to Korea, she hasn't gotten a chance to get one.

Minji sighs. "That's no good. How can I get in touch with you?"

 _Touch_ , Yoohyeon focused on the wrong word. Her stomach did flips again. She needs to stop doing that.

"Well, I stay at the dorms at the university. You can find me there and I have an email address in the meantime. Do you have a pen?"

Minji remembers her bun is held together by a pen and pulls it out. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders like molten lava. Yoohyeon takes it and writes on Minji's palm, causing her to giggle from the tickle of the pen's point. She looks at what Yoohyeon has written, noticing a little heart at the end, and smiles.

"Well, here." Minji pulls out one ₩50,000 bill out of the envelope. "For your ride home, at least."

Yoohyeon is reluctant to take it, it doesn't cost that much for a ride. She looks at Minji again. "Word of advice, if you like someone, just ask them out. You'll quickly find out during the date if a person's a gold digger or not without having to flash your money."

"Duly noted," Minji replies quietly. That's probably the smartest thing someone has told her in a while.

Yoohyeon takes the bill from Minji and puts it in her pocket. She flashes the perfume and Minji just waves at her to keep it again.

"Thanks," Yoohyeon says as she leans in to peck Minji on her lips, the tip of her tongue poking at Minji's upper lip teasingly. She flashes a smile as she walks away.

Minji leans against the door frame, sighing softly as she watches Yoohyeon disappear toward the elevator. There is definitely something intriguing about her, she thinks as she licks her lips, tasting a faint flavor of strawberries now.

[Present day, next morning]

Yoohyeon's thoughts were interrupted by a text message. She glances at her phone, the very phone Minji bought for her after they met again on their first official date two years ago. Of course, she felt bad to receive such a gift but she's kept good care of it until the other day. The crack and dent still reminded her of the events that unfolded. She sees who's texted her and rolls her eyes, placing the phone back on the bedside table. Bora has been blowing up her phone all morning with apologies for the incident at dinner last night but she hasn't replied back to her at all. Right now she just wants to focus on Minji's recovery before heading back home to the states. She's still dead set to return.

She still feels crappy from last night, her stomach empty from throwing up dinner after all. She has no appetite right now but she should eat something soon. But she returns back to the task she had started, taking a brush and carefully running it through Minji's blonde hair, which is slightly greasy from lack of bathing. Bits of dried blood flaked off near her roots and Yoohyeon is careful to wipe them away. She continues to work her way down, using the washcloth on her face to dab at the dried blood around her scratches and replacing soiled bandages with new ones.

The nurse had shown her how to get around the parts that were more difficult, like her back and everything that was covered. The only places she couldn't get to were her limbs that were cast with plaster. She just had to work her way around those.

For some reason she felt useful doing this, to be able to take care of someone as opposed to being the one taken care of. Minji has practically spoiled her, providing her every need, especially physically and financially which she was generous with both. But Minji hardly asks for anything back. Her independence has made her too stubborn. She always wanted to be the one in charge, just like at her job. She forgets to leave behind her work persona when she comes home sometimes. Perhaps that was her only flaw. Yoohyeon wonders how Minji would feel when she wakes up and finds her independence taken away, especially with the condition of her legs and hip.

But now this was the only time Yoohyeon could return the favor and Minji wouldn't be able to resist because she's unconscious at the moment. Too bad it had to be this way but it somewhat lessened the underlying burden she felt for almost two years. The pampered and coddled life was always strange to her and she doesn't think she'll ever get used to it.

Yoohyeon finishes up and tucks the blankets tightly around Minji which is lightly sprayed with her perfume. It's probably the only thing of Minji's she took with her when she left two months ago. It's soft and delicate smelling, making her room feel a little more lively than it is.

She finally decides to go exploring around the rest of the hospital for a change of scenery. She's brought her camera with her this time and thought about taking a few photos. But mostly she wanted to avoid bumping into Bora. Siyeon's room was closer to the end of the hallway in the opposite direction so she had no reason to go over there.

She intentionally gets lost in the maze of corridors, because that's how she's feeling right now. Wandering aimlessly in her head. Her fingertips drag across the textured wallpaper, pretending to read them like braille. The camera captures the stark and sterile hallways and of the waiting rooms filled with restless patients waiting for their turn to see the doctor. It's a gloomy sight to see so she goes to find someplace a little more cheerful and colorful even though she's only using black and white film.

Yoohyeon finds her way into the pediatric wing of the hospital which separated into their own specific wards and ends up at cardiac care. She sees all the brightly colored walls covered with murals of popular cartoon characters from Asia and America. It looks really happy like a daycare or elementary school. The kids there looked happy and in good spirits as they played with one another. Even the nurses looked cheerful dressed in their bright and colorful scrubs. One would never think that the children here were all ill in some way. It brought back some bittersweet memories of her past, something that will always be a part of her.

A father carrying his young daughter around his neck passes by her. She tries to get a shot of them with her camera from behind and overhears their conversation.

"And what does our Yejin want to eat today?" The father asks.

"Ice cream!" The little girl yells, her little hospital gown is pink with little hearts on it.

"Ice cream? This early in the day?" Her father replies.

" _Ne_ , ice cream with lots of colorful sprinkles. And cherries too!"

Something triggered in Yoohyeon's mind just now almost making her lose her grip on her camera.

"Oh, shit!" She hissed between her teeth before turning around to make another dramatic k-drama-esque run out of the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raise your hand if you knew Minji was singing the children's song "Why did you come to my house?" and not the Minx version? lol It was meant to be another soft Jiyoo moment but then I thought hmm maybe I should use this to develop Minji's character because honestly she's the most difficult one to come up with a background and the story's not even about her! lol
> 
> Anyway, I'm gonna try something but if it flops, Suyoo did it! lol
> 
> I'm gonna let you guys pick the next chapter. They both still happen on the same day so it kinda doesn't matter which order it goes (kinda, idk lol) So tell me if you want to read what Bora was up to while this chapter was going on OR do you want to follow Yoohyeon and see what made her run out of the hospital? Whichever you pick will determine how long the next chapter will be posted because one of them is not completely written yet and I won't tell you =P But both are equally angsty and emotastic. But again, if this doesn't work I'll just post how I originally have it. 
> 
> You can answer here or leave a comment on my CC or answer my poll on Twitter @yodo97 that I will set up some time later. Thanks again!


	9. (Note: NSFW-ish)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note: NSFW-ish. It doesn't get too explicit but there's some intimate moments there. My first time writing this sort of thing so excuse me while I sit in the corner and cringe about it. lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I'm very happy to see the number of votes for this next chapter and it was soo close. They were tied for awhile but in the end Bora's chapter wins. It's good because that's actually next chapter in the original order of the story anyway, but I just wanted to know what you guys wanted to read. This little interaction was fun, don't know if there will be another one but it's good to know that more than 10 of you are actually reading this story. hehe XD
> 
> Thanks for 723+ hits!

“She’s not replying back, Bin.” Bora says frustratingly. She stands outside of Siyeon’s room in the hallway talking to Yoobin on her phone.

 _“Did you call or text her?”_ Yoobin asks.

“Text. I doubt she would speak to me if I called.”

_“Probably.”_

“Like, how many times do I have to apologize? It was a joke.”

_“Uh, yeah, no, it wasn’t.”_

“I was fucking drunk! Of course I didn’t know what I was saying. Are Americans this sensitive? Shit, grow some skin.”

_“Leave her alone, unnie. She’ll come around when she’s ready. Or if not, just leave her be. Besides, she’s not your priority right now.”_

Bora sighs, Yoobin’s right as always.

“Nothing’s changed, Bin.” Bora says soberly now. “Singnie’s just lying there and I can’t do anything.”

_“Just talk to her. I read somewhere that comatose patients can still hear, especially the voices from their loved ones.”_

“For real?” Bora was shocked. “But, all those things I’ve said—“

_“I think she’ll understand, unnie. Just talk to her. It might help with the recovery. Oh, hey, I gotta go now. I’ll talk to you later, maybe try to come over again or something.”_

“Thanks, Bin. As always.”

_“Love you, unnie.”_

“Me too, Bin.”

Bora hangs up and leans against the hallway wall. She still feels a little hungover from last night but more tired than anything. She’s passed Minji’s room earlier but didn’t hear anything from there. Yoohyeon must have already visited and left, but she is definitely avoiding her like she’s a leper. Fine, she’ll let her have her space for now but she hopes she’ll come around eventually and acknowledges her apology.

She goes back inside Siyeon’s room now. It still looks the same, the monitors and ventilators making the same steady and consistent rhythm, as long as it stays within safe ranges. Siyeon remains unconscious and immobile, tied and weighed down by all the medical equipment. Bora wonders if it’s worse in the inside than the outside but she doesn’t want to know neither. She’s hesitant to approach her at first but eventually pulls up a chair next to the bed. She takes hold of Siyeon’s good hand and sighs. It feels like her, but not quite. Her “claws” as she calls them were starting to grow out but a few nails were broken. She reminded herself to get nail clippers next time to fix them.

She blows air through her pursed lips before speaking. “Singnie,” she says softly. “The other day, what I said, you know I didn’t really mean it, right?” She pauses. “You know how my temper is, I was just upset. You know I didn’t mean any of that. Right?”

Siyeon doesn’t respond, obviously, and it makes Bora’s face twist with remorse.

“You know I love you. I love you so much. I’m just tired. It’s been so hard. Just working and living day by day like a zombie. I know, it’s not fun. Sometimes I wished I had your free spirit. I used to think you weren’t being serious, just playing around all the time, but you were just being yourself as you always are. I should never have tried to change that. And now that’s what I miss the most about you.”

She tries to think of more, the monitors beeping in the background as if they were keeping track of time. “Remember the day we got back together again, four years ago? That couldn’t be an accident, right? One of the greatest days of my life. I know it was for you. I didn’t realize how much I needed you. Don’t you remember?”

 

[4 Years ago]

 

Bora wastes no time clocking out and exiting that stuffy office building once her shift ended. She couldn’t wait to get home, her frumpy office lady wardrobe was uncomfortable and riding up in places it shouldn’t be. She makes it to the bus stop on time as it started loading up with other weary day shifters. She fishes for her bus card in her purse but it’s not there.

She grunted, digging deeper. The just as weary bus driver looks on unconcerned before closing the doors. “Yah! Wait!” Bora yells but it’s too late. The bus drives off down the street. “Shit!” She leans against a light pole and sighs. _Time to buy a car,_ she thinks.

In the distance she could faintly hear some musicians busking at a nearby corner. The singer’s voice is powerful and melodic as she keeps the beat with a tambourine and her partner strums along with an acoustic guitar. It sounds beautiful, the melody very catchy and the lyrics very hopeful. It slightly brightened up her mood just now.

_Please remember me_

_Please meet me again_

_I will draw in your dreams everyday_

_You and I, under the blue night sky_

_I promised love_

_Shine forever_

_Like a dream of my own_

_Filled with red moonlight_

_Full moon_

When it was over the audience that gathered around them roared with applause.  The singer thanked them enthusiastically as the crowd began to disperse. Bora was about to walk away too until she thought she heard her name.

“Bora? Kim Bora!” It called in such a cute mousey voice. She realizes the voice is being amplified as if the person is speaking into a microphone. She turns her head toward the sound and heard the voice again. “Ah! It is you! Binbin, look! It’s Bora! _Awoooo!_ ”

She’d be an idiot to not recognize that howl.

“Singnie? Oh, my god!”

She almost plowed through the crowd getting to her two favorite people. The taller woman enveloped her into a bear hug, lifting her off the ground and twirling her around.

“Wha- what are you guys doing here?” Bora asks, trying to stop her head from spinning. She never thought she’d see her best friends (one of them her ex) in Seoul, miles away from their hometown. The last time they saw each other was almost four years ago when she started her second year of college, Siyeon went abroad to Japan, and Yoobin was in her third year of high school.

“I’m back home!” Siyeon exclaimed. “Wow, you still look hot.” _hot-hot-hot-hot_ … Her voice echoed, and realized she was still hooked up to her mic. She turns it off, face flushed with pink, from the biting cold weather, of course. “Well, you are.” She says shyly this time.

Bora returns an equally shy smile, feeling like a giddy school girl again. Singnie looks so different now, she noticed. She still dons the dark and baggy clothes but it’s more age appropriate, except for her questionable choices in pants which is something that will never change, she supposes. Her hair is still long but a dark chocolate color now with maintained waves. Her makeup accentuated her best features, her sharp eyes and triangular smile. Her lips were slightly overdrawn but it actually looks good on her. Major glow up, Bora admits.

She turns to Yoobin now who hasn’t changed much, her bubbly cheeks still as round as ever. The forever bookworm carried herself like a scholar and now possessed an air of cool confidence well beyond her young age. Bora finds that quite charming. She watches her put away her guitar before hugging her too.

“Good to see you again, unnie.” Yoobin beams, squishing her cheek against Bora’s.

“God, how long has it been? Almost four years? Are you guys still going to school?” Bora asks both of them.

For being lifelong friends, it was absurd for them to lose contact after graduating high school. But they’ve all decided to do their own thing for school, work, and life, exploring the world outside of their little hometown.

“I still have a few years left.” Yoobin smiles. “Unnie here though, hmm…”

“Hmm…” Siyeon hummed with her. “Well, let’s just say I took my own path.”

Bora rolls her eyes. Typical. Why was she not surprised? Siyeon was always the free spirited lone wolf. You can’t cage something like that with society’s standards.

“When did you get back?” Bora asks.

“Eh, a couple of months ago, I’d say. Kinda wandering around with Binbin and all.”

“Call me that again and I quit!” Yoobin retorts. She still hated those nicknames.

“And you didn’t bother to look me up?” Bora asked, slightly hurt.

“I was gonna, babe-” Siyeon pauses, catching herself. “Really. I just had to settle back in and reorient myself, you know? I’ve actually gotten my Korean and Japanese mixed up now. _Hontou ni, mianhaeyo. (Really, I’m sorry)_ ” She laughs.

“Where were you heading, unnie?” Yoobin asks.

“Home. But I missed the bus. Lost my bus card and—” She sees something familiar on the ground. She walks toward it and picks it up. “—and here it is!” She huffs, throwing the card haphazardly into her purse now.

“Ah, this must be fate!” Siyeon claps loudly, “If that hadn’t happened then we wouldn’t have crossed paths again.”

Bora thinks about it for a second. She knows they would meet again eventually. But right now, at this moment she wholeheartedly agrees. “You’re right.”

“Well then, my lady, will you do me the honor of having dinner with me?” Siyeon bows gentleman-like, twirling her wrist as she bends forward.

Yoobin coughs.

“And her.” Siyeon adds, still bowing.

“You’re buying, unnie.” The younger one huffs.

“Of course.”

They played catch-up over dinner, four years is a long time. Siyeon mentions how she almost got scouted to be in an idol group in Japan but had to turn it down because she just couldn’t see herself parading around in a _seifuku_ [Japanese school uniform] for drooling middle aged fanboys. Yoobin is studying in songwriting and music production. The song Bora had heard them performing earlier was one of the many songs Yoobin has written. As for Bora, she was scouted to be a dance trainee near her last year of university eventually dropping out to concentrate on training. Her days were filled with juggling between grueling dance practices during the day and working a part time office job in the evenings.

After their little raucous reunion, they all piled into the back of a taxi where Yoobin plants herself in the middle seat, much to her unnies’ chagrin. She immediately dozes off from a food coma. Bora and Siyeon took to their phones now, exchanging texts so they wouldn’t disturb her.

**Siyeon**

Do you remember this? Give me your hand.

Bora reaches her arm across Yoobin to Siyeon. Siyeon takes her hand in hers and pinches the back of her hand two times. Bora’s face lights up in recognition. She turns back to her phone and replies.

**Bora**

“I miss you” Of course I remember.

How about this one?

 

Bora squeezes Siyeon’s index finger.

**SY**

“Me too”

Back in school when most couples played footsies or passed notes under the table, Bora and Siyeon had created this secret communication between themselves, using pinching and squeezing on their hands. It’s like their own little sign language or morse code. They might have ended up with sore hands and bruised skin afterwards but it was the only way to keep in touch with each other when they couldn’t talk or didn’t want to speak.

**SY**

And this one?

She pinches the spaces between Bora’s fingers. Bora had to think for a bit before responding.

**BR**

“You’re mine”?

Siyeon smiles at her phone and responds back.

**SY**

You still are.

She takes Bora’s hand now and kisses her knuckles above the spaces she just pinched. The touch felt like warm waves of electric pulses radiating up Bora’s arm. It’s been a long time. Bora leans forward to look at Siyeon now. The street lights outside cast flashes of light on each other’s faces, like a flash of a camera capturing all the moments they’ve missed all these years.

 _Yeah?_ Bora mouths to Siyeon and she nods.

They slowly leaned in toward each other, close enough to feel their breath tickling each other’s lips. Bora can see the golden flecks reflecting in Siyeon’s brown irises. She’s almost forgotten how they looked like.

“Are you guys seriously about to make out in front of me right now?” A sleepy Yoobin mumbles, eyes still closed. “Like, right in front of my salad?” She lifts up a bag of leftovers from her lap, intentionally separating the former couple.

Bora and Siyeon just giggle bashfully then exchanged sneaky glances before averting their eyes toward Yoobin. Bora counts to three with her little fingers and on three, the older girls attacked Yoobin’s face with kisses on her dumpling cheeks. The younger girl squirms in horror before crying out her disgust.

“Fuck! I seriously hate you guys sometimes!” She whines, her face now stained with red and pink lip marks.

Bora is finally dropped off to her apartment but she isn’t alone. Siyeon has been following her like a shadow, connected to her hip almost the entire time since their reunion, except in the taxi. They couldn’t help exchange flirty glances during dinner as if four years of separation didn’t happen. They had some more catching up to do, they explained.

“Yeah, whatever.” Yoobin knows better. “But I better not have to pick you up from somewhere weird again, unnie. That fare almost cost me half my paycheck.” She says to Siyeon, still trying to wipe off the lipstick from her cheeks but she’s making it worse.

“It was just that one time!” Siyeon yells back. “Goodnight, Bin! I’ll see you tomorrow. Maybe.”

“Behave!” Yoobin yells to both of them knowing full well that wasn’t going to happen. Her unnies just gave her a good riddance wave of goodbye as the taxi drives off.

“Where did she find you?” Bora asks curiously.

“Oh, I might have hitchhiked across the country and got lost.” Siyeon says nonchalantly. She sees Bora giving her a disapproving look and she just flashes a grin back at her. “Anyway, Binbin’s more like the parent than we ever were, huh?”

“More like a grandfather, jeez. Is she dating anyone?” Bora wonders.

“No, that girl’s picky as fuck.”

“We need to change that soon.”

They barely stepped inside Bora’s apartment when Bora pins Siyeon against the door, slightly knocking the air out of her lungs.

“Ooh, baby. I like this.” Siyeon’s throat growls as she leans in to kiss Bora on her still hungry mouth. It feels different from when they were teens. It wasn’t shy and awkward anymore, it felt more experienced and much needier.

The outerwear came off first. Jackets, hats, and shoes littered across the floor leaving a trail into the living room. Siyeon opens her eyes to scan Bora’s apartment but it’s almost pitched black except for the moon and street lights shining through the window.

“Place looks nice.” She mumbles between their lips.

“Singnie, shut up,” Bora growls this time, pushing Siyeon roughly on her couch before straddling her, her skirt hiking up to her hips. She cranes Siyeon’s head back to kiss her exposed neck as the younger woman’s throat hums with pleasure.

More clothing comes off now, shirts this time. They separate for a second to get it over their heads. Siyeon catches a glimpse of Bora’s torso lit by the moonlight.

“Shit! This was hiding underneath all that?” She sighs breathlessly. That frumpy office attire did not do Bora’s fit and tight body a favor.

Siyeon’s hands wander across the topography of Bora’s anatomy. Some places felt familiar like her tiny waist and the softness of her skin. While other places have grown and matured like her muscular thighs and her breasts that are barely being contained in that black lacy bra she’s wearing. She remembers the places where Bora likes to be touched and she knows she’s found them again by the way Bora’s hips grind into hers and how she moans loudly into her mouth.

Siyeon’s always so sweet and gentle to her just like back then, Bora remembers. But Siyeon likes to be handled a little more aggressively and Bora was more than willing to oblige. Perhaps the newest addition is that Siyeon grew her nails long now. It was a strange sensation at first when they grazed softly against her skin, then firmly gripping on to her as if trapped in the claws of a predator. They left trails of heat on her skin that only made her ache for more. She won’t admit (yet) that she’s had a couple of flings since Siyeon but none were ever as good as her. Of course, only Siyeon really knows every little thing about her.

Bora finds herself on her back now, slightly wincing from the coolness of her leather couch against her bare skin. Siyeon is fumbling with her skirt and Bora doesn’t care if she tears that ugly thing off. But she finally frees her from it and allows Siyeon to fully take in the sight of her. She sees her mouth gaped open in shock and awe, the same kind of look when she bites into a delicious piece of food. Bora smirks proudly as Siyeon eyes her like a snack, or even better, a four course meal. But right now she’s feeling like a dessert, too indulgent and decadent, and probably bad for her.

She pulls Siyeon on top of her now, taking her hands and slipping them underneath the final layers of clothing on her. She urges her to touch her some more as her own hands run through Siyeon’s silky waves, smelling her familiar scent which brought back memories of their time together.

“What are you thinking, baby?” Bora breathes, hoping Siyeon would play along and talk dirty to her but instead Siyeon pulls away a mere centimeter to take a breath.

“I’m thinking why did I ever let you go?” Her breath stutters. “I’ve never stopped thinking about you. I’ve never stopped loving you.”  

The mood dies down a bit but not in a bad way. It was more like being aware of their surroundings this time and not about the raw and primal instincts brewing within. Bora felt a sudden wetness on her cheeks. Tears, but they were not hers.

“Singnie, baby…” She cups Siyeon’s face, wiping away the tears from her eyes. She kisses her again but much gentler and with intention this time. “I’m still yours.”

She sits up now, still holding Siyeon’s face in her hands. She pecks around the outline of her lips, tasting the tears that rolled to the corners of her mouth. She stands up now taking her hand and leads her into her bedroom where they can take things slowly and properly. And it felt like the first time again, or rather, returning to the moment where it all began, rediscovering places where their hands and lips used to roam. Bora can feel Siyeon putting her whole heart into every kiss and touch.

Bora tries to be gentle this time but whenever Siyeon sighs “my queen” into her ear she couldn’t help unleash that wild beast inside her. It was ironic considering Siyeon always referred to herself as the wolf. But right now she was a mere pup in Bora’s arms.

“Singnie. Baby...” Bora pants into the crook of her neck, feeling Siyeon’s racing pulse against her lips. She has one of Siyeon’s hands pinned above her head with her own hand while her other hand rests perfectly in the warm space between her thighs, clearly in control.

“How did we say _I love you_? Show me, baby.”

She feels Siyeon’s pinned hand entwine with hers as she responds with three firm squeezes.

“Good girl.” She says before making Siyeon fall apart in her hands, catching her whimpers with her mouth.

And just like that, four years of lost time was made up within a span of hours. Every action conveying feelings and emotions that no words can ever express. It was as if they were picking up where they left off from a long dormant hibernation. It felt like home again, comfortable and safe together. Just them.

Siyeon nuzzles exhaustedly into Bora’s shoulder, clinging tightly to her. “I’ll never let you go again, my queen.” She whispers.

“You’re so damn sentimental.” Bora kisses her forehead.

“I guess that emo kid in me never grew up.” She says as she squeezes Bora’s hand three times again.

_I love you._

Bora responds by squeezing Siyeon’s index finger.

_Me too._

“We should make up new ones,” Siyeon says.

“Like what?“

“Like _, girl you so fine, dat booty be mine._ ” Siyeon laughs.

Bora smacks her shoulder. Singnie may be very affectionate but she can also be a crackhead, ruining the mood sometimes.

“How about _I’ll always be with you_?” Bora suggests.

“Hmm.” Siyeon thinks. She takes Bora’s hand and traces an infinity sign inside her palm then entwines their hands again giving a firm squeeze.

Bora follows. _Infinity sign. Squeeze._ She likes that one.

“How about _I’m really really sorry_?” Siyeon suggests this time.

“We already have one for _sorry._ ”

“Well, I guess it’s more like _forgive me_ as in forgive me for ever letting you go.”

Bora thinks for a bit then squeezes Siyeon’s hand so hard it left nail impressions on the back of her hand.

“Ow!” Siyeon yelps. “Well, I hope we’d never have to use that often or our hands would break off.”

They giggled, lying on their backs and staring at the shadows of the trees dancing on the ceiling above them.

“What are you thinking about?” Siyeon asks this time.

“I’m imagining you in that _seifuku_ now. It’s kinda hot.” Bora smirks.

“Ugh, you’re such a perv!”

“Not even for me?” She says in an _aegyo_ voice.

“No way!” She laughs.

Bora turns to her side, watching Siyeon humming contently with her eyes closed. She traces her eyes along her profile, marveling that this is the same Singnie, her Singnie. “And what are you thinking now?” She asks her.

Siyeon peeks one eye at her as one corner of her mouth hooks upward.

“ _I can do this all day._ ” She says teasingly.

 

[Present Day]

 

“‘ _I can do this all day’._ Remember you said that?” Bora smiles.

“I thought you were being flirty but you said that was a line from Captain America. And remember what I said? I said, ‘ _you know I love Thor’._ And then remembered what you called me?” She glances at Siyeon’s unresponsive face. “You called me a _‘Thor whore’_. Gah, you know that actually pissed me off at the time?” She laughs as tears start forming in her eyes. “But I couldn’t get mad at you at that moment, that moment when you returned to me. One of the greatest days of my life.”

She holds Siyeon’s hand firmly again. “And then I asked you why you loved Captain America so much. I thought you’d say he was handsome but you said you loved his honesty and I thought that was such a noble answer. So, that said, maybe you haven’t been honest with me lately. Hell, I probably haven’t either but I promise you, when you pull through, I will hold my tongue until I hear your side of the story. I just want answers. I just want to know why. I can’t promise you that I won’t feel hurt, but I promise I will not let my temper blow up before I hear your words. I’m going to try to be better, for you, for everyone. Ok? I’m sure Bin would agree to that. So please, Singnie, don’t give up, because I won’t give up on you. Ok?”

She presses her lips on the back of Siyeon’s hand, warming her cool skin with her breath. She probably won’t feel it but Bora does it anyway and squeezes Siyeon’s hand so hard her nails left impressions on the back of her hand.

_Forgive me..._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cry. T_T Didn't think I'd use a Captain America reference but there it is. 
> 
> I swear this is starting to become a JiYoo/SuaYeon flashback fic disguised as a SuYoo fic. lol Don't worry, things are picking up soon. 
> 
> So that means Yoohyeon's chapter is next (it still needs more editing), so while you're waiting for that, does anyone have any guesses as to what could have possibly triggered Yoohyeon to run out of the hospital? Hint: the clue is in chapter 8 although it might be a spoiler if you guessed it so maybe if you can possibly give an out of context clue like "piece of clothing" or "color" or something to keep from spoiling it.
> 
> As always hmu Twitter @yodo97 or Curious Cat https://curiouscat.me/yodo97


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay. I've been busy but I've been writing everyday so I should be back on track now. I got stuck on this chapter because it's very narrative heavy and it reveals a lot of things but I'm trying not to reveal too much. Thanks for all the comments, some of you are catching on to things so I'm glad that I didn't write things too vaguely.
> 
> For a refresher, this chapter picks up after Chapter 8 when something triggers Yoohyeon to leave the hospital. Did you guess what it was? Someone already did after Chapter 9 was published. (Kudos to you Anon!) For those who haven't guessed, the real Jiu actually left a clue on the fancafe today on June 26th. *psst it's her current profile pic* It's crazy how things like that happen! There's a spy among us. lol
> 
> Anyway, thanks for 859+ hits & 67 kudos! Enjoy!

The twenty-minute taxi ride takes Yoohyeon toward the heart of Seoul. Her destination is a fancy high rise apartment building. She never thought she’d ever be back here. Here, where she used to call home. She had only lived in her dorm for a few months before Minji convinced her to move in with her, and there she would stay for almost two years. Her commute to the university would be a little farther but she no longer had to worry about any expenses.

She eyes the entrance, hoping it wouldn’t be the same old doorman who used to greet her every day. But to her luck, it was a different man and she suddenly felt a little sad, wondering what happened to the previous man. But she straightens out her same old hoodie and jeans and tucks her tangled locks behind her ears. She slowly approaches the entrance and the new doorman greets her cordially, opening the tall glass door for her. Yoohyeon smiles tight-lipped, holding her breath as she walks through as if the sound of her breathing would give her away.

Once inside, she stalls around, remembering her old routine here of checking the mail before taking the elevator, but she had no key this time. Instead, she enters through the fire stairwell, her boots echoing loudly like thunder. She’s never been to this part of the building, it’s the least nice looking area with its cold and concrete appearance. She eventually tires out around the 3rd floor and takes the elevator the rest of the way to the 8th floor. She was so grateful they didn’t live on the higher floors, this particular building goes up to twenty though she’s never gone beyond ten.

Every floor looks exactly the same, long corridors with the doors equally spaced out. It almost looks institutional, like the hospital. She’s gotten herself lost the first few times she’s been here. The only way to tell the difference between floors were the wall colors and Yoohyeon remembers that the 8th floor is a lilac color. Before, just for fun, she used to count the steps it took to walk from the elevator to their apartment. Then she’d close her eyes and try to count her way.

The elevator doors finally open and the color lilac appears in her vision, almost brighter than the last time she saw it. She closes her eyes now and starts walking, counting her steps as she goes. She stops at step twenty-two and turns to her immediate right. She opens her eyes and stands in front of the correct door, the bold numbers of apartment 810 greet her. The big black metallic door looks so cold and uninviting now. She wonders if what lies behind it will be the same or if everything will be completely different aka her existence erased. Only one way to find out. But if she couldn’t get past this first part then it's game over.

Her thin fingers reach toward the keypad and freezes just before the numeric buttons. A little shock of static brings her back to her senses again and now she felt her chest pound with dread. She finally presses the numbers on the keypad, carefully and slowly, as if she was trying to disarm a bomb.

1-3-0-1

She waited and nothing happens until she remembered that she has to press the unlock button as well. Once she does she hears the mechanical clicks and noises of the lock turning. It worked, it still works. Minji has not changed the code. The numbers represented the date when they first met two years ago on the 13th of January. It makes her heart feel heavy but she quickly shrugs it off saying it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just inconvenient to keep changing the code. She reaches for the handle this time and feels like she’s entering somewhere forbidden, riddled with booby traps and is sure some kind of alarm would go off. But she finally opens it and is greeted by a quiet and dark entrance. She turns on the entry light and what she sees makes her heart and her knees drop to the floor.

“Aigoo! Cherry-ah!” She cries as something fluffy bounces toward her. A white Pomeranian jumps on her, yelping with cries of excitement. Yoohyeon’s eyes teared at the sight of the dog. “Oh, Cherry. Princess. Are you ok? I’ve missed you. Did you miss me?”

If that little girl’s sweet tooth back at the hospital didn’t remind her who knows what would have happened to the dog. She couldn’t imagine. It had to have been at least two days since the dog was cared for. She scoops her into her arms, stroking her fluffy fur which is in need of brushing. She could feel her ribs sticking out and her stomach slightly caved in. Her little pink collar also felt a little loose.

YooHyeon immediately takes her to the kitchen where she sees the empty food and water bowls then searches the cabinets for dog food. Once the kibble hits the metal bowl, the dog wastes no time gobbling it up, eating for its survival.

“Poor baby, you must be starving.” She pets the dog who’s grunting loudly with every bite. Yoohyeon leaves her to eat as she scans the rest of the apartment.

She draws back the curtains of the floor to ceiling windows and afternoon light spills into every space and corner of the apartment. She can see the view of Seoul stretched out for miles, the hospital in the distance. At night it’s the most beautiful with all the colorful lights especially the bridge on the Han river. She misses this view. She turns back now and assesses the apartment. The dog has soiled some parts of the floor, as expected. The place still looks the same but a thin layer of dust has settled on everything giving the once bright and soft colored apartment a muted and dull appearance. The granite countertop where Minji would make her pastry masterpieces was now littered with paper and unopened mail.

It was strange seeing the familiar things but the feeling was entirely different now. She shouldn’t be here long. She only wanted to check on the dog. She has to call the boarding place to keep the dog until Minji recovers. She can’t stay here. It’s like a haunted house, haunted by memories of the past and what will never be. She scrambles around the kitchen looking for the business card and calls the number once she’s found it. After explaining the situation, she was told to bring the dog sometime today. She thanked them and quickly prepared herself to leave.

“Ready to go, Cherry?” She looks down and the dog is staring at her with such adoration. She looks like she’s telling her to stay with her and it breaks her heart. “What? You want me to stay, baby girl?” She says and the dog immediately responds to her, tail wagging. She bends down and the dog jumps into her arms again. She feels her stomach now, slightly round and tight from eating. “You ate well, didn’t you? Yes, you did.” She smiles. She looks at her face to face and Cherry licks her nose. “Ok, I’ll stay for a bit. But you have to go away for awhile until mommy comes back, Ok? You miss mommy, right?” The dog responds to her again.

Cherry was the reason why she and Minji’s first morning was cut short. Minji was supposed to pick her up from the vet that morning after dropping her off the day before for her monthly checkup and grooming. Minji spoils that dog just as much as she does with Yoohyeon that there was some silly rivalry between them. It doesn’t help that Minji finds Yoohyeon’s behavior very puppy-like at times and says she feels like she’s taking care of two puppies.

 _“Well, who do you love more?”_ She once asked her jokingly.

 _“You know I love you both.”_ Minji had answered.

 _“You can’t do that. Can Cherry make you feel this way?”_ Then she’d tease Minji with a playful kiss, her lip studs tickling her neck as she makes her way to her mouth.

 _“That would be disgusting and highly illegal.”_ She sighed before she takes over and pins Yoohyeon against the counter or whatever adjacent piece of furniture was nearby.

“Shit.” Yoohyeon snaps out of her daze. She really can’t stay here long. The memories are already beginning to flood back and she hates that she can recall almost every detail without trying. She looks around to find something to distract herself. She’ll clean up Cherry’s messes, that’s what she’ll do. Minji will appreciate that at least. She’s doing more than enough already. She stands up and retrieves all the cleaning supplies and gets to work. Good thing the dog is tiny, she couldn’t imagine what she’d have to clean up if Minji had a bigger dog. But it doesn’t take long for her to complete everything. Some of the carpeted areas might need deep cleaning later but overall everything is clean enough.

She looks at the dog again. “Ready to go now?” She asks again, but it looks at her with its pleading beady black eyes. “ _Aish!_ Don’t look at me like that, Cherry! I’m trying to help you.”

She realizes she’s arguing with a dog and shakes her head. She’s feeling tired and hungry anyway. She figures she’ll at least take care of that and then they can finally go. But the usually always full fridge was surprisingly bare this time. Minji cooks most of the time but she must have been eating out lately. Yoohyeon digs inside the pantry and it’s filled with junk food which she isn’t in the mood for. Chocopies were Minji’s favorite and she’d watch her eat those contently, and wanting to lick off the bits of chocolate that stuck to her lips--

 _Stop it!_ Yoohyeon scolds herself. She finally finds a pack of ramen and decides this will have to do. So she makes her sad little meal, eating directly from the pot on the countertop. She shuffles through the papers on it, nothing but junk mail and more junk and she wonders what Minji has been doing all this time. Clearly not taking care of the place, obviously.

Yoohyeon is stalling. She doesn’t want to leave but she really can’t stay here any longer. She comes up with excuses, maybe she’ll clean up the rest of the apartment or just do something useful. Maybe she’ll pack a bag of stuff for Minji so when she does finally wake up, she’ll have her things with her. That’s right! That’s what she’ll do.

She enters the hallway, the long straight tunnel of floral wallpaper. She sees the very last room at the end of the hall, the door closed and light spilling underneath the bottom. It’s pulling her towards it like a magnet but she distracts herself by going into all the other rooms along the way.

The first room she enters is Cherry’s room. Yes, the dog has its own room. It’s filled with dog toys and miniature furniture and Yoohyeon remembers how ridiculous and ridiculously cute it is. This dog is definitely living the life. She exits Cherry’s room and enters the next room, an unused guest room which she looks once over before closing it again. Nothing interesting there.

The third room is a room Minji had set up for her as a surprise. It was her very own studio and darkroom so she wouldn’t have to spend her nights alone at the university’s darkroom anymore. She wondered if it was still there or if everything was removed. To her surprise, it was left the way it is as if no one has entered there since she left. The smell of the photo developing chemicals filled her nose and she ached to get back to doing photography again. She turns on the red light even though there’s nothing to expose. Sometimes she would just sit here in the dark for hours, thinking about weird things like imagining the inside of a womb must feel and look like this.

On a table lay stacks of photos left behind. All of them were black and white. She shuffles through some photos of Minji taken candidly around the apartment, one where she would look out the window deep in thought, and another where she was in the kitchen kneading pastry dough with her hard-working hands. She finds these to be the best photos of her where she was being natural and genuine with her bright smile and thoughtful eyes. But the girl in the hospital is not her. She’s just a faded shell of what she used to be. Almost a stranger to her now. Is the Minji she knew gone?

Yoohyeon tears her eyes away from the images, her chest stirring with old feelings. She continues to fight with the memories that are coming at her full speed, distracting herself with one thing after another. But in the back of her mind, she knows the longer she stays here the harder it will be to resist. It’s like slow torture and she hates that she’s actually craving for it. At least it’s making her feel something again.

She glances into the last room, Minji’s office, and is shocked to see it in such disarray. It almost looks burglarized: papers strewn about, furniture knocked over, and broken glass from picture frames scattered on the floor. She’s never known Minji to be destructive but after what has happened in the last few months she doesn’t even know anymore. That could only mean it will only get worse from here, she dreaded. She wished it was her room destroyed instead, she would understand.

Her body tenses now as she comes face to face with the final room. _The room_. She can feel its magnetic pull stronger and stronger now, almost feeling a vibration as she places her palms against the door. She takes a deep breath, already feeling the intensity of emotions behind it as she finally enters it.

But... it looks the same as if nothing has been touched by the look of the dust settled on everything again. All the clothes and things she’s left behind were still in their places as if Minji expects her to be back anytime now. But it feels different, obviously, dormant and frozen in time as if that’s what Minji’s been feeling since she left.

“Right. Yoo, just get what you need and get the fuck out of here,” She says out loud to herself, taking a deep breath.

She finds a bag and quickly searches through everything. She feels like a thief ransacking the room, stuffing various belongings of Minji’s into the bag: her clothes, toiletries, and other essentials. She comes across her own things, or rather, things Minji has bought for her. Things that she always felt guilty for having because they were just too extravagant for her tastes, so she left them behind. She wonders why Minji hasn’t gotten rid of them by now. But if she was honest if it had been the other way around she’d probably keep Minji’s things as long as she could. But she still had her memories and those will never go away, permanently etched into her brain.

A gaudy colored box on the vanity caught her eye. She doesn’t remember seeing it before. It’s hard not to notice it for it was almost glowing like radiation. Curiosity makes her open it and she sees a thin diamond-encrusted ring inside. It surprises her as the light bounces off of it, almost illuminating and bringing it to life. It slightly hypnotizes her as every little diamond sparkles in her eyes. Then a brush against her leg startles her and makes her drop the box accidentally.

“Ah, Cherry, you scared me!” She yelps as she kneels down to pick up the box but the ring is not inside it anymore. “Shit!” She cursed, feeling for it on the floor but with no luck. Oh well, why should she care? That’s not important anyway. She sighs now, standing to her feet then planting herself on the foot of the bed, the bed they once shared. She’s mentally drained at this point and she wants to go to sleep right now. But she knows she shouldn’t.

“Just a few minutes.” She tells herself. “Just rest my eyes a bit, then we’ll go. Ok, Cherry?”

She takes off her hoodie, revealing a thin tank top underneath and lies back on the mattress feeling the familiar softness of the sheets. Countless thoughts began to swarm her head and she convinces herself she can handle them without going insane. She sighs again as her fingers run along her scar underneath her shirt.

 _“Ever thought about getting it removed? ”_ Minji had asked her one day.

_“Why?”_

_“You don’t think it’s ugly?”_

_“Not everything ugly is a bad thing. It’s a constant reminder that I’m alive because of it.”_ Yoohyeon explained.

_“I never thought about it like that.” Minji realized._

Ever since YooHyeon told Minji about the events involved around it, she has been fixated with it. That’s why she treats Yoohyeon with such utter care as if she is fragile glass. She feels the need to protect her, almost to the point that it’s become an unhealthy obsession because she couldn’t bear to lose another person she loves.

_Another person she loves._

Yoohyeon tilts her head backward and in her upside down vision sees a framed photo on Minji’s nightstand. It was an old photo of Minji with her parents in front of the first Tokki’s cafe opened. She had to be about under ten in the photo, Minji had told her. It was her mother’s idea to start the cafe and all the recipes were hers. Minji is grateful to have inherited her baking skills, watching her for hours in the kitchen. But ever since her passing when Minji was in her teens, Minji felt compelled to continue her mother’s legacy, working her way up the company though she didn’t have to because Tokki’s is essentially hers anyway. All she had to do is sit and look pretty. But she wasn’t one to just sit around and do nothing. She worked her ass off to be where she is.

Her father, although a hardworking and serious businessman, was not as warm and personable despite owning such a cute and happy cafe. Yoohyeon had sensed that Minji’s relationship with him is somewhat distant, especially after her mother’s passing. She has only met him a few times. He seems to regard Minji more like a company associate than a daughter, she guessed. In the last few years he’s been in bad health, Minji had mentioned once. It was only a matter of time before Minji takes over the company, but--

Yoohyeon’s thoughts shifted again. Can’t she just have one moment without thinking about her?

 _Well, dumbass, you’re the one who’s not supposed to be here._ She argued in her head.

“Just thirty fucking minutes, please!” She yelled to herself, her voice reverberating up to the high ceilings.

She closes her eyes now and immediately sees Minji as if she was there in the flesh with her. That’s definitely not helping but she gives up and lets her imagination run wild, playing scenarios in her head.

“Baby, I’m so sorry.” She whispers.

The Minji in her mind just smiles at her silently.

“Why would you want me to stay? If you knew what I’ve done you’d be so disappointed.”

Minji still doesn’t say anything, this perfect illusion of her staring at her as if words could never hurt her. If only it was this easy. Just let her sugary sweet smile ease her mind and tell her it’s ok but it still doesn’t sugar coat the ugly truth she’s hidden from her. Minji still doesn’t know and it’s probably too late to tell her now.

 _Coward._ She berates herself. _So weak. All you do is run away!_

Yoohyeon tries to make her thoughts idyllic again, imagining it like a fairy tale because those always end happily ever after, right? The mythical Minji still doesn’t say anything, just smiling like an idiot but her smile looks insincere now, almost mocking YooHyeon for her cowardice and incompetence.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Yoohyeon is insulted by her own thoughts. A burning of anger washes over her. But she could never get mad at Minji, not even in real life.

“Ugh, you are so beautiful.” She sighs.

Her imagination of Minji is becoming too much, caught up in every detail she remembers. The air in the room still smells like her and it chokes her up with more memories of her, of being with her. If she could have another moment with her she wants to show her that she wasn’t weak, that she could be strong for both of them, that she can take care of her too. Maybe she will understand. Thoughts of Minji in her arms, surrendering to her, and letting Yoohyeon take control makes her breath quicken, the burning now redirecting itself towards her center. The bottled up feelings inside her are waiting to be released. Her hand has a mind of its own as it wanders slowly down her body, her cold fingers thawing against her burning torso. They find their way below, under the layer of fabric against her skin and she shudders at the sensations she hasn’t felt in a long time.

 _Stop!_ Her mind tells her. It feels wrong thinking about her this way especially when they weren’t together anymore. Minji is no longer hers. She’s conflicted, wanting to give in to her body’s hunger but her heart is saying, _No, you don’t deserve it._ So she forces herself to stop, pulling her hand away and denying herself the satisfaction of her own “happy ending”. The feeling now becomes an agonizing ache, her body curled up from the discomfort. She grabs the nearest object, a pillow, and screams into it letting out all her pent up frustrations. She breaks down into another blubbering mess but fully aware that she can’t lose control or she’ll hyperventilate again.

 _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorryI’msorry, I’m sorryI’msorryI’msorry._ Her mind replays over and over.

She muffled her sobs, pressing the pillow against her face hoping to stop her own breathing but the panic in her brain makes her take a breath again. She releases another scream then throws the pillow across the room. Whatever it hits crashes to the floor with a bang and Cherry barks at the noise from outside the room.

“I give up. Let me go... please.” She whispers weakly, her sobs turning into whimpers now. The Minji in her mind gives her a final smile with such sadness in her eyes. She turns around and fades away into darkness. YooHyeon finally closes her eyes allowing sleep to overcome her now.

Hours later a vibration near her stirs her awake. She opens her eyes to a sunset stained room. She doesn’t answer her phone at first, letting it go to voicemail. But she finally reaches into her hoodie to listen to the incoming message.

_“Hello. This is Happy Face boarding and grooming. We were just calling to see if you’re still planning to drop off Cherry today? We’ll be closing soon. Thank you.”_

Yoohyeon curses. She hangs up and sits up in the bed, still feeling drained and not fully rested. She collects her stuff, getting ready to take Cherry with her and leave once and for all but something catches her eye again. She glances at the empty space where the pillow used to be and spots some papers. She unfolds one of them. It’s the letter she wrote to Minji before she left. It’s been folded and handled so many times that it looks old and weathered, tearing at the creases. Has Minji been reading it every day as she told her a while back? She sees that some of the ink has bled and was smeared from something wet. Tears stains, she figures and feels her heart breaking again. A notepad was found next to her letter. It looks like Minji was trying to translate the English parts to Korean. She was making an effort to understand her.

 ** _I don’t deserve you._** Minji had copied followed by the Korean translation.

Then she wrote, _Wae?_ next to it.

 ** _Forget me._**  She copied and translated.

 _Wae??_ She wrote again.

**_You will only be disappointed._ **

_Hyeonie, naege dorawa._ (Hyeonie, come back to me.) She wrote, underlined this time.

Yoohyeon crumples her note and tosses it across the room. Cherry comes trotting to her, returning her balled up note in her mouth. She couldn’t help huff a tearful smirk at her.

She picks up the dog again. “Do you think she’ll forgive me, Cherry?” She asks. Cherry just licks her face as if reassuring her. She smiles sadly but her heart is somewhat at ease after everything that has happened. She gathers her things and leaves the room. She takes one last look at the apartment, knowing that everything in it including Cherry will be nothing but a distant memory after this.

 _But if she knew the real truth,_ she thought, _She’ll never let me go._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, that was difficult to write as in it's difficult to write about all the things going on inside one character's head. I hope I didn't write Yoo as crazy or sth, she's just guilt-stricken. But anyway, I'm done messing with this chapter though I'm somewhat not satisfied with it. lol
> 
> But I should be back on track with the writing or at least every other week now because it's becoming more detailed and I have to be really thorough with it. But thanks again for your patience!
> 
> HMU Twitter @yodo97 or Curious Cat https://curiouscat.me/yodo97


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey~ Happy Friday night/Saturday morning to you! Hope you're doing well. Uh, yeah here's the next chapter!
> 
> Thanks for 941+hits!

[2 days later]

“She’s still there.” Bora said. “Do you think it’s time I should talk to her?” She waits for Siyeon to respond and it’s always the same response. Silence. “Well, I can’t let this go on any further. I’m going. Wish me luck, ok?” She kisses the back of Siyeon’s hand before giving it three squeezes.

She exits Siyeon’s room, through the hall and into the open waiting room where Yoohyeon had sat for almost several hours now. She was like this all day yesterday too, sitting and staring blankly in the same chair. At first, Bora thought the girl hadn’t moved at all since yesterday but she noticed that her hoodie was different today. She figured the girl has to at least get up to eat or piss sometime, right?

Bora approaches her slowly trying not to startle her. Though half of her face was shrouded she could see that Yoohyeon’s eyes were open but they looked dazed and vacant, dark circles around her eyelids. Bora waves a hand in front of her but she doesn’t respond. It was an eerie sight as if her soul had left leaving behind its fleshy covering.

“Rachel?” She calls her name this time, softly at first. She doesn’t respond again and she almost panics. She swears if the girl is dead or something she’s gonna have a heart attack.

“Rachel?” A voice cuts through Yoohyeon’s mind. She hears it call her again more clearly this time. Her vision slowly fades from grainy darkness to bright light until a complete scene finally came into view. She blinks her eyes several times and darts them around, reorienting herself. There’s someone standing in front of her, she noticed. She lifts her head and just raises an eyebrow in confusion.

“Are you ok?” Bora asks, her voice still sounding echoey in her ears. She looked concerned if not just as confused as her. Yoohyeon realized she had spaced out again but for how long this time? She gives a vague shrug in response as she tries to collect herself.

“Can I sit here?” Bora asks carefully.

Yoohyeon looks around. They are the only ones in the waiting room, all the chairs are empty. Only the TV playing loudly in the corner filled the otherwise awkward air surrounding them. Yoohyeon finally nods and Bora sits down next to her, puffing her cheeks, trying to think of what to say next.

“How’s it going?” Bora starts after several seconds.

Yoohyeon rubs her eyes. How does one feel after fatigue and insomnia has plagued them for the last two nights? “It’s going.” She answers deadpanned.

“Any changes?”

Yoohyeon shakes her head. “You?”

Bora hums in agreement. “Same. I can only give so many bed baths. Singnie’s probably the cleanest patient in the hospital.”

Yoohyeon almost giggles, finally eliciting a real emotion, almost. “Yeah.”

“Look, I know I probably don’t deserve your forgiveness and I’m the last person you want to talk to but… I want to apologize for the other night. I get crazy stupid when I’m drunk and say shit I don’t mean. I was out of line and I’m sorry.”

“I’ve seen your texts.” Yoohyeon replies, still not looking at her.

“Yeah. Yoobin has chewed me out about it too.”

“She’s a good friend.”

“She really is.” Bora agrees.

Yoohyeon takes a deep breath, deciding it’s no use to keep holding grudges. Besides, she has a lot more to deal with right now that’s for sure. “It’s all good. Don’t worry about it. I have to apologize too. Maybe I overreacted. You’re not entirely wrong.”

She sees Bora turn her head to her. “Yeah? About?”

“It’s much more complicated, Minji and me. But we are--or were, real.”

Bora’s curious but she doesn’t want to pry. At least she’s finally gotten that off her chest and the girl doesn’t completely hate her. Yoohyeon stretches out her long limbs now, her joints cracking loudly. She finally glances over at Bora.

“What’s that?” She eyes the pink box in Bora’s hand.

“Oh.” Bora opens it and presents it to her. “Um, consider this as me extending the olive branch to you. Or in this case, the fruit tart.”

Yoohyeon sees the lovely golden fruit tarts in the box and manages to crack a smile then snickering at the irony of it all.

“What’s funny?” Bora asks almost offended.

“I think it’s funny that you’re making peace with me with Minji’s brand.”

Bora frowns. “I’m sorry, I’m not following.”

“Tokki’s cafe. Minji’s family owns the franchise.” She reveals.

“What? Are you serious?”

“Well, she is next in line to take over the company.” _Or was._ She finishes in her head.

Bora chokes in mid-bite of a fruit tart. “Are you fucking for real?” She coughs.

“That’s exactly what I said when she first told me.” Yoohyeon takes a water bottle she had next to her and hands it to Bora.

“Thanks.” Bora coughs, taking the bottle and washing down the tart stuck in her throat. “Shit, you struck gold. How did you manage to snag that one?”

“I still wonder that myself.”

Yoohyeon recalls the not so subtle tests Minji put her through to see if she was a gold digger. She’s pretty sure she must’ve looked up a list online or something. Of course, she’s passed them all. While Minji may be perfect in all the ways of beauty and wealth, she was oblivious when it comes to relationships. Sometimes money and gifts are not the only ways into someone’s heart, at least not to Yoohyeon’s. And although she has never been with anyone else, YooHyeon fared better than Minji in that department that’s for sure. She supposes it’s because she kept her expectations low so as not to be disappointed. It’s because of this that Minji definitely sees something different in her from other people she’s been with in the past. And it probably helps that she finds YooHyeon’s foreign vibe exotic, if Americans are considered exotic.

“I love Tokki’s.” Bora continued. “We used to hang out at the one in our hometown a lot after school. I still go there every now and then even after their popularity went down after that health inspection violation a few years ago.”

Yoohyeon snickers again. “That’s still going around? I had something to do with that.”

Bora turns to her again. “You? How?”

“Well, I didn’t want to keep getting pink envelopes from Minji anymore.” She said with emphasis and Bora knew that was a jab to her. “So I begged Minji to let me work at one of her cafes because I wanted to earn my own money like everyone else. It’s not like I’m not capable. So she finally gives in and puts me in one of her cafes. Then all of a sudden rumors were spreading around that I was receiving special treatment.”

“But I wasn’t. I was probably the busiest employee there and practically got paid the lowest but I was perfectly fine with that. I just wanted to do something even if it was just bussing tables or washing dishes. I didn’t care. But the worst part was the bullying and harassment.” She pauses, nearly choking on words she’s trying to say. “I mean, I know my Korean isn’t as great and I still have a lot to learn about our culture, but people can just be so cruel. You’d think we were back in grade school. At least when I lived in the states I only got picked on for being a skinny and quiet kid. Maybe got called a racial slur once or twice. But I was never told I was an ‘ _outsider_ ’ or ‘ _not a true Korean_ ’ from your own people. I feel like animals here got treated better than what I went through.”

Bora listens and she could sense the hurt in Yoohyeon’s voice.

“I should’ve told Minji but I didn’t want to burden her. Of course, she happens to walk in one day and sees it happening right in front of her, and of course, she’s furious. And you know what she did? She fires the entire staff and shuts down that location for a month before replacing it with new staff. The whole health inspection thing was a front.”

“Wow.” Bora was shocked. She had to admit that was such a bold and dramatic move just to defend someone you love. But she feels like she would do the same for Siyeon and even Yoobin.

“Yeah. Of course, the CEO, her father, wasn’t too happy about what she did though. Let’s just say I’m not allowed anywhere near a Tokki’s forever.”

“That’s not fair.”

Yoohyeon shrugs. “It’s ok. I had my tarts personally made anyway. I guess the only rumor that was true is that I was sleeping with the manager.” She grins impishly, the mood lightened up a bit. Bora just shakes her head at her statement. “But after that Minji didn’t let me work anymore. Said I didn’t need to, she would take care of all that.”

Bora puffs her cheeks again taking in all the new information she just heard. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were having such a hard time living here.” She thinks about all the times she’s accused Yoohyeon’s American status as being high and mighty. The girl just wants to fit in with everyone else.

“Me either.” Yoohyeon agrees. She finally takes a tart and thanks Bora. A wave of nostalgia almost brings her to tears when she bites into it. She glances at the logo on the box. It was of a cartoon rabbit smiling brightly with the cafe’s name below it. Minji had told her that her mother modeled the logo after her and upon a closer look Yoohyeon realized that the dot on the rabbit’s face is not its nose but a dot mimicking the mole on Minji’s upper lip. She thought that was very clever and now every time she looks at it she’s always reminded of Minji’s beautiful lips.

“What were you doing before all this happened?” Bora interrupts her thoughts again.

“I was about to board a plane to go home to California.” She replies.

“Oh?”

“I literally had one minute to choose between staying or leaving. And--” Yoohyeon pauses. “And I don’t know if I made the right decision.”

Bora’s brow furrowed. This girl keeps piquing her curiosity but she seriously tries to mind her own business. But the girl is full of mysteries, one after another, the more she keeps talking to her.

“What about you?” Yoohyeon asks this time.

“Oh. I was making dinner.” Bora says, her answer not as interesting as Yoohyeon’s.

“Ah, that explains the apron,” YooHyeon remembers.

“Oh, yeah.” Bora smiles briefly. “But right before that Singnie and I had a little argument over text. It was just me bitching about stupid stuff and now all this happened.”

The mood suddenly goes down and they both felt it. Then Yoohyeon speaks again.

”What are you gonna do when they wake up?”

“Knowing me, I’d probably start some shit talking again,” Bora answers truthfully. “But now, I just want answers. I just want to know why. What could be the reason?”

Yoohyeon thinks. “I know that Minji is a sucker for helping out people. She may suck at how relationships work but she’ll never hesitate to help out someone, especially if it involves money.”

That part hit hard for Bora, and the realization that that could be the reason suddenly made her feel depressed.

“There are just some things I don’t understand.” Yoohyeon continues. “She wouldn’t mess around like that. She’s such a stickler about things like that, especially after what she made me go through to be with her.”

Bora suppresses her thoughts of Siyeon betraying her. She still couldn’t believe that was a possibility. Part of her wants to rage again but she’s been doing well keeping it together so far. Can’t mess it up now.

“Maybe someone’s not telling the truth. People change.” She concludes, leaving it at that.

Yoohyeon feels guilt rising in her again, she knows she has something to do with it. But if the scene back at the apartment is any indication that Minji still cares about her then why did she move on so quickly?

It becomes painfully silent between them now, except for the TV that’s still playing loudly in the corner. It was airing a drama, a medical drama, ironically, here of all places. They both watched it for a few minutes, slightly engrossed in what was happening because dramas are addicting after all, right? Yoohyeon scoffs after a particular scene.

“That shit isn’t true.” She says. “You can’t transplant whole eyeballs, only the corneas are transplantable.” A dramatic scene had played of a blind patient miraculously seeing again with her donor’s eyes whose eyes were a completely different color from the patient’s original eye color.

“Hm, that’s interesting.” Bora remarks, she’s always wondered how accurate these medical dramas were, obviously overexaggerated for the views.

They both tore their gaze away from the screen now. If only their situations could end happily like those dramas, but no, this is real life. Bora sighs into her hands now, completely exhausted all of a sudden.

“Ugh, I just want to get away from here.”

“Me too.” Yoohyeon agrees. “Do you have anything in mind?”

Bora didn’t think she’d follow up. “I-I don’t know. I feel like, like dancing or something.”

Yoohyeon’s brows rose. "That’s so… random.”

“I just... gotta move around or I might go crazy.” She says as her leg bobs up and down unconsciously.

Yoohyeon thinks for a moment. “Oh. I remember seeing a wristband to a club in Minji’s purse. Club Wonderland I think it’s called.”

“Oh, yeah. I think I saw their business card in Singnie’s purse.” Bora remembers as well. “Her and Yoobin must have performed there.”

“Then, let’s go check it out.”

“Really? That one specifically? Why?”

Yoohyeon shrugs. “Maybe we’ll find something.”

Bora scoffs. “Ha! Why would we wanna know what happened there? Besides, I thought you didn’t like places like that.”

“I don’t,” Yoohyeon confirms. “But I suppose it’s better than just sitting here doing nothing. And I don’t think the police can help us with this situation.”

“I don’t know.” Bora is unsure. “Just being in the same place where they were together, you already know how I feel about that.”

She’s right, Yoohyeon realizes. “Sorry, you’re right. It was a dumb idea.” She gets up from her chair and stretches again. “It was just a thought. Um, see ya. I guess.” She starts walking away.

“Wait!” Bora gets up and catches up to her. “Hey. I mean, it’s not a bad idea, actually. I could use a drink or several.”

That made Yoohyeon stop in her tracks. She turns around. “Really? Did you not remember what happened the other night?” She reminds her.

“OK, OK! I’ll just have one drink. Maybe two.” She held out two fingers. “I won’t go crazy. Let’s just chill out and have fun tonight, ok? I think we both need a distraction right now.”

Now Yoohyeon isn’t sure but she gives in. “Ok. Fine.”

“I mean, as much as I hate to say this but I’m sure that’s what they would have wanted us to do, right? Instead of moping and worrying about them like this.”

“I guess so.” Yoohyeon mumbles.

“Actually, you look like you need to sleep for the rest of the week. You look like a zombie.” Bora sees her face more clearly this time.

“I feel like one,” Yoohyeon adds.

“Another time then?” Bora dismisses.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll manage. I gotta get out of here too. Besides, it gets boring stealing medical supplies after a while.”

“Wait, what?” Bora just shakes her head before handing the box of tarts to her. “Anyway, here. They’re yours.”

Yoohyeon takes the box almost eagerly, her fingers unconsciously touching the rabbit logo. “Thank you. I’ll see you later then.”

They both exchanged nods and tired smiles as they returned to their respective rooms.

~~

“How crazy is it that her ex is the next owner of Tokki’s?” Bora says as she does her makeup in the poorly lit bathroom.

“Rachel sure is an interesting person,” Yoobin replies, leaning on the door frame watching Bora.

“Seriously, why would she leave someone like that? It’s like she won the lottery but doesn’t want it.”

“That’s none of our business, unnie.”

“I swear, that girl is just a big ass math problem. I can’t figure her out.”

“Because it’s none of your business?” Yoobin keeps saying.

“Whatever. You sure you don’t want to join us, Binnie?” Bora asks. “You can be my DD.”

“I’m totally fine, unnie. Just use this time to bond together and let bygones be bygones.” Yoobin replies. “Besides, I’ve been the third wheel more than I ever wanted.”

“But you’re the best third wheel ever!” Bora means it genuinely.

Yoobin scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Gee, don’t I feel special? I’m just proud that you talked it out without having to resort to verbal violence.”

“Hush, Bin! Do you not have faith in me?”

“Kidding! Anyway, what is the name of the club again?”

“Club Wonderland, I think.”

“Oh?” Yoobin remembers the name. “We performed there twice, I think.”

Yoobin hasn’t forgotten what she wanted to tell Bora back around the dinner incident. And after what she just heard about Minji it was beginning to make sense yet she still doesn’t know the whole story. But she’s not sure she wants to bring it up right now especially when Bora and Rachel had just reconciled with one another. She tries her luck though.

“Unnie--” She started but a knock on the door interrupts her. She turns around and opens it for Bora.

“Hi, Rachel.” Yoobin smiles.

“Oh, Yoobin?” Yoohyeon was surprised to see her. “Are you coming along too?” She seems to like the idea of having Yoobin tag along. She could use another helping hand, especially one who can handle Bora in case she got out of line, again.

Yoobin shakes her head. “Actually, I was on my way out. Just came by to drop off some stuff for Bora. You guys have fun, ok?” She turns her head around to yell at Bora. “Unnie! I’m heading out now!”

Bora finally emerges from the bathroom. “Leaving so soon? Were you about to tell me something just now?”

Yoobin just shakes her head not wanting to ruin the moment. She steps out into the hall with Rachel. “Hey, if the queen of the vampires gives you trouble, call me. My number’s on her phone.” She smirks as she walks away.

“I heard that, Bin! And thanks again!” Bora says as she finally approaches her door. She looks at Yoohyeon and scoffs. “Are you seriously going to wear that?” was her immediate response.

Yoohyeon looks down at herself. She is dressed in a long green flannel shirt this time with ripped black skinny jeans, and of course her signature rugged boots. Her hair is done up in a high ponytail, her dark nape undercut in need of a trim. Her silvery bangs wisped softly across her forehead, almost covering her eyes that still looked tired.

“What’s wrong with this?” She asks.

“You look like you’re about to chop some wood.” Bora looks her up and down. “Well, at least it isn’t another one of your hoodies. You look like a teenage boy in those. C’mon, I think I might have something you can borrow.”

Yoohyeon huffs, stepping inside the room, “At least I don’t smell like one.”

Speaking of smell, as soon as she entered Bora’s room she was hit with a heavy scent of perfume. It was not the soft and delicate smell like Minji’s but it certainly fits Bora, strong and a bit obnoxious. But she had to admit though, Bora looks stunning right now. She wore black from head to toe: a flowy sheer blouse with a crop top cami underneath, a fitting skirt, and completed with shiny knee-high boots. She wore grayish contacts and her eye shadow was done in smoky colors. Her lips were a bright bloody red and her long ebony waves framed her sharp face. Queen of the vampires is right, Yoohyeon recalls Yoobin’s remark. If there was a Matrix and Underworld crossover she’d fit right in.

“What is all this?” Yoohyeon’s eyes were now hit with a sudden visual of clothes all over Bora’s room.

“I just told Yoobin to grab a few things from my place.” She answers, digging through a pile.

“And you told her to bring your whole closet?” She jokes.

“Don’t judge! You don’t know what kind of club it is. Might be super swanky or a techno rave for all we know.”

Yoohyeon highly doubts Minji has gone to raves. “You have something for ballroom dancing in here too?” She continues to joke.

“Ha ha.” Bora finally finds something and shoves it to Yoohyeon. “Here, try this.”

It was a loose satin gray blouse with slits down the arms exposing the shoulders. It was a bit big on her, for both of them actually, but that is the style at the moment. Yoohyeon unbuttons her flannel shirt not caring that Bora is next to her. But Bora catches a glimpse and immediately averts her eyes. Geez, this girl has no shame, she thought, not that she has much to show anyway. Yoohyeon slips the shirt over her slim torso and turns to Bora. Bora reassesses her. She looks like she’s wearing a glorious trash bag. So she ties the front tails around Yoohyeon’s tiny waist into a midriff then straightens out the shirt, noticing something on Yoohyeon’s skin peeking out just above the dipping neckline.

“Not bad.” Bora looks back. “Maybe if you rolled your pant legs up too it’ll look alright. But…” She points at Yoohyeon’s feet. “Those boots. I’ve always hated those ever since I first saw them.”

“It’s all I have.” Yoohyeon sighs.

“I don’t suppose you fit a size 220 shoe?”

“What’s that in US size?”

“Oh. Right.” Bora looks at the label inside one of her shoes. “Uh, it says 5?”

Yoohyeon guffaws. “I haven’t worn that size since grade school.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Bora whines. It was always a struggle for her to find shoes that didn’t have velcro or glitter and only found in the kid's section. She quickly changes the subject. “Do you wear makeup?”

Yoohyeon shrugs. “Minji used to dress me up all the time. I clean up well, actually.”

“I’m guessing it’s not your thing?”

“I don’t mind it. It’s obvious that I’m not high maintenance.”

“Then you don’t mind if I do yours for you?” Bora offers.

Yoohyeon shrugs again. “Sure.”

They enter the tiny bathroom together. Yoohyeon sits on the toilet seat cover while Bora sets up the makeup on the tiny counter next to the sink. The lighting in there was terrible so she did her best to make sure the colors coordinated well.

“Seriously, how much stuff did you ask Yoobin to bring back for you?”

“Just essentials.”

“Essentials? You saw my duffle bag, right? That’s essentials.”

“That’s more like survival bare minimum.”

They giggled, finally sharing a light-hearted moment. It actually felt nice doing something different for a change. Something that didn’t involve bandages and antiseptic, or worry and anxiety. Bora examines Yoohyeon’s face, it’s a smooth blank canvas, not a single blemish. She wouldn’t have to cover up much except for the dark circles around her eyes. 

“Nice skin.”

“Best skincare in the country.” Yoohyeon chimes.

“True.”

She lines Yoohyeon’s almond eyes with black eyeliner blurring it slightly with her fingertips. Then mascara, then blush. But when she reaches her lips she’s a bit perplexed.

“Um, do you mind taking off your lip ring so I can put this on?”

Yoohyeon complies and removes it. It feels weird without it on, feeling vulnerable like a knight without armor. She puts it inside her jeans pocket, deciding to take a break from it for now. Bora finishes with the lipstick, a soft tangerine color that went well with her silver hair.

Yoohyeon studied Bora’s face while she was doing her makeup. She can finally see all the details up close, from the moles dotting the side of her face, especially the one hidden in her eyebrow, to just how sharp and long her nose really is.

“I’m sorry.” She apologizes out of nowhere.

Bora was taken aback slightly. “For what?”

“What I said about your nose. I know it’s real. I was just--”

Bora nods. “I know. It’s not the first time I heard that.” She finally finishes her makeup and backs away from Yoohyeon pleasantly surprised by the results.

“Wow! You really do clean up well.” She marvels, impressed by her makeup skills in this hideous lighting. Or maybe Yoohyeon just pulls off makeup really well.

Yoohyeon checks herself in the mirror, impressed as well. “ ** _Hey cuty ~ Sup? Wanna ride?_** _”_ She says to her reflection while flashing finger guns.

Bora shakes her head at the girl. She adds some final touches with a few accessories and reassesses again. “I think we’re ready. Your boots will have to do, I guess.”

“You never know when you have to give an ass kicking.” YooHyeon jokes again.

“You’re a funny one, aren’t you?” Bora smiles. The girl is actually funny when she’s not being mopey and weird. “Anyway, let’s just have fun tonight, ok?”

Yoohyeon nods. “Thank you, Bora.”

That’s probably the first time she’s heard her say her name since--since they’ve actually met. Bora smiles warmly, not just at Yoohyeon but also for herself for making progress so far with her own self-improvement.

“You’re welcome.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daww, they're finally getting along right? Right??? What could possibly happen at the club? Who thinks this is a good idea raise your hand. And who thinks this wasn't a good idea raise your hand. Tell me in the comments/CC what you think might happen.
> 
> HMU Twitter @yodo97 or Curious Cat https://curiouscat.me/yodo97


	12. Chapter 12 [T/W: nonconsensual drug use, mention of blood]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Trigger warning: nonconsensual drug use, mention of blood]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah... that's all I'll say about that. And also, a new character appears!

They took a taxi instead of Bora’s car because she couldn’t trust herself that she would only have one or two drinks—at least she was upfront about that—and Yoohyeon does not have a license. After being tagged with plastic wristbands, they were greeted by loud dance music, blinding strobe lights, and lasers ricocheting off the walls and floor. Bora’s body already starts to move with the music as she scans for the bar. Once she spots it she guides Yoohyeon by the wrist and makes a B-line toward it.

Yoohyeon was slightly wary of being in a place like this again as they planted themselves on tall barstools. She wasn’t here to meet new people this time. The fatigue still weighed her down and the loud music isn’t helping but she’d rather be anywhere but the hospital. They were then greeted by the bartender, a woman with long toxic orange hair and dangerous-looking eyes under blue contacts. They were both stunned by her beauty, her high cheekbones forming pink round apples emphasized by her blush. She flashes a flirty smile, one tooth stuck out slightly like a fang making her just a bit cat-like.

“Good evening, ladies. What can I get for you?” She asks, her Korean had a slight accent. Bora wastes no time and orders her drink, something strong, while Yoohyeon settles for water. It warranted a scoff from Bora.

“New here? I’ve never seen you two before. I would definitely have remembered your faces.” The bartender looks at Yoohyeon as she says that.

“Mmhm.” Bora hums, already sipping on her drink a little too fast. It’s been a while since she’s gone to a club, the music makes her sway in her seat.

The bartender notices Yoohyeon’s silver locks before her eyes wandered toward her mouth, noticing her lip color matched her own hair.

“Nice color.” She smiles.

“Thanks. You too,” Yoohyeon looks at her nametag, “Handong.” She smiles politely but she can definitely feel those blue eyes trying to undress her right now. Great. She avoids further eye contact by pretending to look at her phone. She already feels like tapping out but she agreed to come here and decides to be a good sport about it.

She sees Bora whispering something to Handong and both women glance at her before Handong walks off. She returns minutes later and presents a tall skinny glass of a red drink in front of Yoohyeon.

“From the ‘queen of the vampires’.” Handong nods her head toward Bora. Yoohyeon looks up and sees Bora holding her own drink up to the air.

“You look like you could use a pick me up, wake up!” She says then toasts towards her.

Yoohyeon thanks her and clinks her glass with hers. She takes a sip. It was sweet and definitely alcoholic. She returns her gaze to Handong.

“There’s an energy drink in it.” She says, “But careful, it tastes like candy but if you drink it too quickly you might knock out in minutes.”

Kinda defeats the whole purpose, doesn’t it? She thought. She would rather have the energy drink but she just sips it carefully. It’s too early to be wasted and she can’t be wasted.

“Hey. I’m going to find the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” Bora says as she shimmies off her stool. They watched her disappear into the darkness of the crowd.

“So,” Handong starts, “You guys together?”

Yoohyeon almost chokes on her drink. That is the most ridiculous thing she ever heard.

“I’m sorry.” Handong laughs. “You two just look good together. That’s all.”

“No, it’s not like that.” Yoohyeon clarifies. She takes the chance to divert Handong’s attention elsewhere and pulls out another phone. She unlocks it and scrolls through it before presenting it to her.

“Sorry, I’m sure a lot of people come here but since you mentioned remembering faces, do you recognized these two women here?” Yoohyeon flashes individual photos of Minji and Siyeon from Minji’s phone.

Handong looks at the pictures, searching in her head. Right then Bora had returned.

“Line’s too long. I’ll wait.” She says, planting back in her seat. She takes another sip of her drink when Handong bursts out loud,

“Ah, Lily and Monica!” She finally remembers. “Yeah, they come here often. Cute couple. I almost didn’t recognize Lily with that black hair.”

Bora chokes on her drink at the recognition of one name. A sudden rush of emotions began to fill her but she hides her face taking another sip of her drink. “Of course, you used your English name.” She murmurs spitefully into her glass.

_Monica?_ Yoohyeon thought. That explains “M” from Minji’s messages. She wonders if they even know each other’s real names. But she felt a certain kind of way hearing Minji’s English name because that was the name she had given her from that children’s song she sang the morning after they met.

“Monica has performed here with her band, _Oki_ \--something,” Handong recalls.

“ _Kami Ookami._ ” Bora finishes. “It means ‘paper wolf’ in Japanese.”

Handong nods at the information. “Oh, that’s cool. I haven’t seen them in awhile. Are you a fan of the band or something?”

Bora downs the rest of her drink. It wasn’t a shot so it burned all the way down. She almost slams the glass on the counter as she wipes away stray drops from her lips.

“ _Monica_ is my girlfriend,” Bora replies, her voice comes out rough from her throat. Then she nods her head at Yoohyeon. “And Lily, you said?” Even her name sounds perfect, she scoffs. “She’s her rich kinda-sorta girlfriend or something.”

She didn’t have to say all that, Yoohyeon groans in her head. Might as well have said “sugar mommy”. Bora’s done with her first drink and she’s already stirring shit, she feared.

Handong’s face twists in confusion. Then the realization hits her and her eyes went wide with shock as if she just opened Pandora’s box. “Oh.” She gasps her mouth in a perfect O. “Well, shit. I’m sorry. I had no idea. I’ve seen them here several times already. Oh—fuck! Sorry again!”

This was a bad idea. They should’ve known. It’s not like they could ignore what happened here even if they wanted to. But hearing the frequency of their visits there was upsetting. Handong senses the tension in the air brewing between the two women and immediately gets herself out of there by checking on the other patrons.

Bora huffs several deep breaths before turning to Yoohyeon. “What are you doing? I thought we were just going to chill out?”

“Don’t you wanna know what happened? Besides, I can’t just _chill out_ when they’re barely hanging on to their lives right now.” Yoohyeon replies.

“Are you trying to make me feel bad? I thought we agreed to come here to get away for a bit. I’m not ignoring what happened. How can I? I’ve never left Singnie’s side since this whole thing happened.” Bora pauses to stop herself from going off. “I—I just don’t want to think about that right now. I just want to—” She reaches for her glass again but it’s empty. “Shit! If you don’t want to be here then you can go. I’m not making you stay.” Her voice sounds more disappointed than angry.

“Bora, I’m sorry.” Yoohyeon apologizes, putting away Minji’s phone.

They just sat silently to themselves. Bora fiddles with her empty glass as if it would magically refill itself again. Yoohyeon felt really bad now wanting to just call the whole thing off and get out of there now, but there’s no way she was going to leave and leave Bora here by herself.

Handong returns after a while, approaching them with caution and sees the gloomy picture before her. But she’s seen worse from overdramatic crying women to very touchy-feely drunkards. “And how are we ladies doing?” She tries to lighten up the mood. When no one answers she lets out a little pout. “Hey, we’re here to have fun, right? Besides, if it’s any consolation,” She started. “This weird vampire thing you’ve got going on is kinda hot. You two look good together. I almost thought you were a couple.”

Yoohyeon hears Bora laughing hysterically next to her, trying hard to keep it together. She can see Bora gripping her empty glass so hard, she’s pretty sure she could shatter it. She manages to pry it out of her hand.

“Us? A couple?” Bora cackles, her drink has already caught up to her. “You saying we should hook up or something? Like, have some revenge affair to get them back or something?”

_Dammit, this woman really has no filter!_ Yoohyeon facepalms, shaking her head. This is going to be a long night.

Handong lifts up her hands. “Woah, I didn’t say anything like that. I just said you two are hot, especially this one here.” She eyes Yoohyeon again, biting her lower lip.

Bora scoffs and looks at Yoohyeon. “What is up with you, chick magnet? You even got Yoobin smitten and that girl’s frigid as fuck.”

Yoohyeon shrugs, she really doesn’t know what everyone finds attractive about her. “I don’t know. I’m tall?”

Bora sneers at her and pulls out some money to pay for their drinks. “Anyway, thanks.”

“Oh, no!” Handong protests, shoving the bill back to her. “It’s on the house. Have some more, even top-shelf. I insist.”

“Forreal?” Bora’s eyes lit up.

“For you? Forreal.” She smiles sympathetically.

“In that case, hook me up!” Bora catches Yoohyeon glaring at her reminding her of what she said earlier. She just shoots back an ‘I don’t give a fuck’ look and Yoohyeon backs off, not wanting to deal with that.

Handong busies herself making Bora’s new drink but Yoohyeon refuses when she was offered. She realizes she’s going to have to be the DB, or designated babysitter, and she feels like she’s about to work overtime. Besides, her frail constitution would not be able to handle all that alcohol even if it was free.

She continues sipping slowly feeling more awake from the energy drink but now also feeling the tipsy hints in the background. She watches Bora doing the opposite, putting away her drink like water. She’s almost finished with her second drink. She’s crazy, YooHyeon thought. Like, where the hell is all that liquid going? The more she observed Bora the more intriguing and frightening she is. She’s surprised she hasn’t made an outburst yet but she doesn’t want to wait for it to happen. It hasn’t been thirty minutes yet but Yoohyeon can see the gradual change in Bora’s demeanor as the tension she saw earlier slowly began to dissolve. Her eyes eventually turned into horizontal crescent moons and her cheeks even rosier, surprisingly making her almost cheerful.

“Hey, let’s dance,” Bora mumbles all of a sudden, now loosened up.

Before Yoohyeon could say anything she was already pulled from her stool and dragged toward the dance floor. She glances back at Handong who just blew a little kiss at her.

It only took Bora seconds to find the beat of the music and she easily slips into a groove. Yoohyeon just watches the little woman in her element, moving her body like it was specifically made to do this. Even under the influence, she didn’t miss a beat as if the music was a part of her, connected and melded into her bones. She becomes animated and alive, fueled by rhythms and beats.

Yoohyeon just nods along with the beat trying not to overexert herself. Her ears are ringing from the electronic sounds and she can’t tell if the pounding in her chest is from the caffeine or from the bass. But it was making her heart beat harder and stronger than she ever felt in awhile. Bora pulls her closer to her almost grinding into her. It catches Yoohyeon off guard and she distances herself just a bit. She catches a devious smirk on her lips as if Bora knew exactly what she was doing. Yoohyeon just shrugs off her alcohol-fueled flirting but Bora is being persistent. It doesn’t help that the lyrics of the song playing right now were synonymous to Bora’s actions.

_Midnight_

_Come to me now_

_Midnight_

_Again today, I’m falling into you_

The way Bora moves is hypnotizing with her serpentine body rolls and entrancing stare. The strobe lights are hitting her at every perfect angle, like a model posing sixty poses per minute for the camera. There is no doubt that Bora is sexy, she knows she is, and she lets everyone know because people are starting to stare at her, impressed by her dancing skills that haven’t gone to waste. She likes the attention and she’s feeding off of it because she only keeps going, hitting every beat harder. For a moment Yoohyeon had stopped moving, transfixed by the visuals, sounds, and the effects of alcohol that were overwhelming her already overwhelmed brain. Then the song changes and she sees Bora sauntering toward her, more like stumbling.

“Are you just gonna stand there and stare at me all night?” She noticed and Yoohyeon breaks out with sudden perspiration. “C’mon, dance with—”

“Excuse me, miss? May I have this dance?” A man has approached Bora with an outstretched hand. She looks at him and smiles. Cute enough, she thinks, pointing her index finger up for him to wait as she turns back to Yoohyeon.

“Look, I don’t care what you do for the rest of the night. Just don’t kill my vibe, all right?” She says almost like a warning. She turns back to the guy to take his hand as he leads her back to the dance floor.

_Snooze, you lose._

Yoohyeon made out the last words Bora mouthed to her. She scoffs. _Whatever._ She watches on as Bora and the guy quickly made a connection. She couldn’t help feel a slight pang of jealousy that she had no right to feel. She watches on as the guy placed his hands on Bora’s hip, fingers linking into the belt loops of her skirt. His other hand nearly covered the entire small of her back. She was so tiny in his hands. Yoohyeon just stands by cautiously but was glad to see Bora finally letting loose even in this chaos surrounding them. She has been a firecracker of exploding emotions since they met but now she actually looks like she’s having fun. She decides to let her have this moment but makes sure to keep an eye on her. She turns and makes her way back to the bar, guess she’ll have to deal with the googly-eyed bartender.

“Wow, she’s hella good.” She heard Handong say.

Yoohyeon nods. “She used to be a dance trainee. Trained with someone name Summy or something.”

“Summy? You mean Sunmi? No way! Does she still talk to her?” Handong seems overly excited to know this info.

Yoohyeon has no idea, is she supposed to know who she is? She feels like she’s missing out on something but that’s none of her concern right now.

“Hey,” Handong says, a little less flirty this time, "What I said earlier, I had no idea and I'm sorry if I offended both of you. I swear your friend looked like she's about to choke a bitch.”

"She's harmless, mostly talk." She hoped. She busies herself looking through Minji’s phone again, her mood down all of a sudden.

“Are you trying to catch them in the act or something? I haven’t seen them in a while though.” Handong admits. “Happens here all the time. Doesn’t end well. A lot of fights and screaming and crying.”

Screaming? Check. Crying? Check. Fights? Almost. If only Handong knew where Minji and Siyeon are right now but Yoohyeon doesn’t reveal anything.

"How were Lily and Monica like when they were here?"

The question surprises Handong. "Umm, well, they seemed to get along well. When Monica performs Lily would watch from the bar here, in the seat you’re in, actually.”

As soon as she said that Yoohyeon swore she could feel Minji’s presence emanating from the stool she sat in. She turns to where she could see the stage, a perfect view.

“The first time I talked to Lily, hm, about two months ago, she was such a mess. Said she was dumped by her girl..." Her eyes dart to Yoohyeon, "...friend.” She stops talking again realizing who she is.

"What did she say?" Yoohyeon was curious but scared at the same time

"I'm sorry it was a while back and I've heard so many break up stories since then I'm afraid I might tell you the wrong one," Handong says, saving herself from continuing this awkward conversation.

Yoohyeon just nods, maybe it's best not to know.

"You sure you don't want another drink?” Handong changes the subject this time, “Can't turn down free booze, right?”

"Sure, get me whatever you gave her.” Yoohyeon gives in. Now she wants to forget too.

"Gotcha!” Handong turns around to make her drink.

Yoohyeon also turns back and sees Bora and that man still dancing together. They were getting a little too close and handsy with each other and Yoohyeon felt like she should intervene but a glass appears in front of her.

“Here you go.” Handong presents her drink. It was just a clear liquor. No wonder Bora drinks it like water. She takes a sip of it and immediately grimaces. Ugh, how can Bora drink this stuff? It tastes like disinfectant. She sees Handong giggling at her face.

“Cute.” She smirks.

“Did Min—did Lily seem happy the last time you saw her?” Yoohyeon pries again.

“Huh?” Handong puts a hand to her ear, the music has become deafening now.

“Did Lily look—“

But they were interrupted when someone approached the bar. A man orders a drink and Handong quickly goes to make it. Yoohyeon glances up and it's the same man Bora was just dancing with. She turns around to find Bora still dancing, lost in her own world, eyes closed not caring that anyone is watching her. She looks back at the man. He’s just okay looking, trying too hard to impress, doused with strong and obnoxious cologne. Maybe he has money but who cares? She couldn’t help feel a weird vibe from him, but then again most guys at the club gave off that vibe to her. The man catches YooHyeon looking at him and flashes a wink at her as Handong finishes his drink order.

He pays for it and walks off. Maybe the caffeine is making her very alert right now but Yoohyeon almost missed it had she blinked at the wrong millisecond. Between flashes of the strobe light, she swore she saw something fall from the man's hand and into the glass when his palm was over its wide mouth. She watches him return to the dance floor, returning to Bora who took the drink and drank it eagerly.

Yoohyeon was still trying to register what she just saw. The mixture of emotions, fatigue, alcohol, and caffeine were messing with her head. She tries to break it down again. Something had fallen from the man’s hand into the drink and now that drink is in Bora's hand and she's practically downing it. The realization finally hits Yoohyeon but she felt paralyzed again, unable to move from the stool. It's one of those things that don't look real until it really happens in real life.

"Are you ok?" Handong asks, noticing the sweat dripping from her brow.

It snapped Yoohyeon out of her thoughts and she realizes she has to do something. Like, right now. She grabs her glass and chugs most of her drink, feeling it burn all the way down that she was sure her esophagus had dissolved. But with that liquid courage inside her now she gets up from her stool and starts wobbling her way toward Bora.

“ _Yodo!_ ” She says, hyping up herself as she approached them. She stands almost between Bora and the man.

“Excuse me, may I have this dance?” She almost slurs.

The guy looks at her and smiles. “Sure, baby.”

“I meant her.” Yoohyeon points her eyes at a drunk and possibly drugged Bora. She takes her hand and twirls her away from him and moves to another spot on the dance floor. She takes the glass from her, it’s already half empty. “Bora, you ok? I think you had enough.”

“Ish never enuff.” Bora slurs giddily. She’s definitely drunk right now.

“Hey! We weren’t finished.” The guy finds them again.

“I think you are,” Yoohyeon says back trying not to choke from the fear that’s making her throat close.

He laughs mockingly at the stickly woman whom he towered over. “That’s so cute. Hey, I don’t mind sharing. We can all have fun together.“ He says as he drops a heavy hand on her shoulder. But the sudden action causes Yoohyeon to flinch reflexively that her hand holding Bora's tainted drink springs up and hits him on the temple, breaking the glass against his face. He keels over in pain, both he and Yoohyeon shocked of what just happened.

“Are you fucking crazy?! Can’t take a joke?” He presses a hand to his head, blood trickled between his fingers.

“You think drugging helpless drunk girls is a joke?” A bold voice comes out from her chest.

The look on his face tells her that she caught him but it soon turns into a devious grin. “And what are you gonna do about it, sweetie?” He stumbles toward Yoohyeon, managing to grab her by the collar of her shirt. “You’re gonna pay for this.”

She struggled to get out his grip, it’s obvious she was no match for him. In a last-ditch effort, she pushes him away as hard as she could. When there was enough distance between them she swiftly, but clumsily kicks him between the legs with the toe of her heavy boot. His grip on her shirt loosened as he crumples to the floor, balled up in a screaming mess. A roar of gasps erupted on the dance floor. All eyes were on Yoohyeon now and she’s flushed with adrenaline and embarrassment. She quickly collects Bora and made their way out of the club.

The cold crisp night air greets them as they got outside. Yoohyeon gets them far away from the club before setting Bora down on a bench, away from the lights and prying eyes.

“Shit!” She cried, catching her breath. She couldn’t believe what just happened. It was definitely one of the most nerve-wracking things she’s ever encountered. It didn’t feel heroic at all. Everything was done out of pure panic and reaction. But one thing’s for sure she got out of there unscathed and Bora is safe. She was grateful that her attention to detail wasn’t impaired right then for who knows what could’ve happened to Bora had she not intervened.

“Bora, are you ok?” Yoohyeon asks, her nerves still jittery. Bora whines at the sound of her name seemingly unaware of the events that just happened. “How are you feeling?”

“Cold.” She replies and rightfully so for their sweat-drenched clothes mixed with the chilly air made them shiver more than usual.

“Are you hurt?”

“Mm.” She mumbles.

“Where?” Yoohyeon checks around her body and doesn’t see anything.

“Here.” Bora points at her chest. “Here. Broken.” Then she giggled drunkenly.

“ _Aish._ ” Yoohyeon groans, she had her worried for a second. “Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Bora shakes her head.

“What’s my name?” Yoohyeon asks. She’s still not sure if Bora’s just drunk for she remembered she drank a lot more during their spat at dinner than what she had at the club. But she looks like she’s about to pass out, that lively dance machine shutting down.

“You... are... Rachel Kim.” She finally answers slowly and Yoohyeon sighs in relief. “Most annoying bitch I’ve ever… met.”

Yoohyeon grits her teeth. Fine. She’ll take that. Just Bora’s shit-talking again. Well, she’s not so high on her likable list either even if they were starting to get along. Yoohyeon finally hails the nearest taxi to get back to the hotel. Once inside Bora keeps teetering back and forth between giggling and groaning, her body slumping over more and more. Yoohyeon encourages her to keep talking to her.

“Hey. You hear what she said?” Bora mumbles.

“Who?” Yoohyeon asks.

“That hot bartender, about us? Hooking up?”

Of all the things that happened tonight and she only remembers this?

“That’s not exactly what she said but ok,” Yoohyeon replies getting antsy to get back to the hotel already.

“Funny, huh? Like, you’re so not my type.” Bora giggle-groans again.

Yoohyeon rolls her eyes. “Feeling’s mutual.” Again, not high on her list.

“But.. what if we give them… taste of their own medicine? Get revenge? We’re innocent, right? Bet they’d _die_ if they found out.” Bora cackles again before doing a 180 and her mood turns sour now. “I hate them. I hate them so much.”

Yoohyeon just shakes her head, cringing at Bora’s poor choice of words. She was afraid things would go wrong tonight but this was beyond what she predicted. She could only offer her shoulder for Bora to lean on as the taxi neared their destination. She’s definitely going to regret what she said in the morning, if she even remembers.

(to be continued)

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!!!!!
> 
> Of course, it's going to continue. I mean this part of the night isn't over yet. This chapter got too long (almost hitting 6000 words) that I had to split it. Even I fell asleep reading through it because it's that long. LoL But yeah, you'll just have to wait for the next chapter to see how it concludes. =P
> 
> I mentioned it on my Twitter but it's kinda funny/weird how DC seems to release something that's featured in my story at the same time, like Chapter 10 and Cherry. And now this past week it was Handong-centric with her vlog and Special Clip (I looooooveeee her SC, it's been on repeat all week) and of course, she finally shows up in my story. They're watching O_O
> 
> Thanks again for your patience and for getting my story 1091+ hits! 
> 
> As always hmu Twitter @yodo97 or Curious Cat https://curiouscat.me/yodo97


	13. Chapter 13 [T/W: blood]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey! I'm back! Sorry for the huge delay. Would've been done a while ago if I wasn't busy helping out some family, had a week's vacation back in Aug, and gotten sick a few weeks ago lol but yeah...
> 
> Aside from those things this chapter jus took too long to write and is the longest one to date (almost 5.5k!) So don't rush through it or else you'll be waiting for a while again lol If you want, reread chapters 11 and 12 to refresh your memory.
> 
> I took a different approach with this chapter which probably added to the delay. For example, the middle part of this chapter is supposed to be the continuation of the last chapter. I kinda like where I put it now, hope it's not confusing.
> 
> Anyway, enough rambling. Thank you for being patient and sticking around. I predict there are about two more chapters before I "Intermission" the story. While I know how to end the story, it's taken a lot of detours since my original idea and I want to make sure that the 2nd half (yeah, there's still a loong way to go) fits nicely and there are no holes or loose ends.
> 
> P.S. I'm not about to change Yoobin/Yubin/Youbin/U-bin's name in the story now that she's revealed how she actually spells her name. lol

[After the club, early morning]

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Yoohyeon murmured under her breath as she made her way back to her room. It is early morning, almost dawn. Fortunately, no other hotel guests were up and about for she would surely draw attention with her strange appearance as she crept through the hall, arms around her torso keeping her unbuttoned shirt from opening.

She finally made it to her room, melting to the floor feeling exhausted again even after sleeping off the caffeine and alcohol. Snippets from six hours ago suddenly flashed into her mind but none of it made sense. When she pieces the fragments together she just shook her head in disbelief.

“No! No! No!” Yoohyeon knocks her fists on her head. Her heart pounded erratically inside her tiny chest making all her pulses throb. One place, in particular, was her lips. A dull ache radiated from them and she tried to stifle it but pressing her lips together only made it worse.

_This has to be a dream, right? Tell me this isn’t real._

~~~

[Present, afternoon]

Bora opens her eyes to the ceiling reflecting the golden brightness of the sun. She darts her eyes around, not remembering how she got back to her room. When she sits up she is shocked to find herself only in her underwear. Panicking, she checks her body for any strange sensations but only felt a throbbing in her head and a sourness in her stomach, matching the acrid taste in her mouth.

She reaches for her phone only to find it completely drained. The hotel clock on the nightstand made her do a double-take. Are her eyes messing with her or does it read that it’s almost three in the afternoon?

“Shit!” She yelled finally pushing herself out of bed. Her legs wobbled underneath her, stumbling around like a newborn calf toward the bathroom. The sight of her face in the mirror almost made her jump back. She went from a seductive vampiress to a demented looking clown, hair disheveled and makeup smeared all over. A contact somehow disappeared as well. But the scene in the bathroom only added to her confusion. There’s dried vomit in the tub, presumably hers, which explained the taste in her mouth. But the strangest sight was the dark red smears on the sink and spots on the floor. Near her feet lay the gray satin shirt she lent to Yoohyeon and it’s stained with that same red smear.

“What the fuck? So she has been here?” she figured.

Bora quickly washes her face, not completely, but just enough to make her look less insane, not noticing the little hints of orange rubbing off on her hands. She slips on whatever oversized shirt she finds and a pair of leggings before making her way to the first floor. She made sure her presence is known, stomping loudly in the hallway until she reached Yoohyeon’s room where her little fists banged against the door like bombs going off.

“Rachel! Rachel! Open the door!” she yelled just as loud.

She can hear noises behind the door. A loud thud followed by a curse could be heard. But seconds go by and Bora almost resorts to kicking the door this time until it finally opened.

“Finally! I--” Bora immediately lost her train of thought and the words she wanted to say. In front of her is a big yellow Pikachu face, in the shape of a hood, smiling at her almost mockingly.

“Hey, Bora,” a quiet voice comes out from under the hood. “How are you?”

“Are you fucking serious right now?” Bora scowled.

Suddenly she felt like she couldn’t be mad anymore with such a cute thing in front of her. Her eyes scan Yoohyeon up and down. She is wearing a bright yellow Pikachu onesie, complete with ears attached to the hood. Her face is shrouded again, silver hair spilling out as if the Pikachu grew a wizard’s beard.

“What the hell are you wearing?”

“I ran out of clean clothes,” she answered half truthfully. Her voice was timid wary of Bora’s mood right now.

Bora just blinks before finding her words again. “You were in my room last night? Care to explain how and why I woke up half-naked in bed in the middle of the afternoon?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No, I don’t and it’s driving me crazy.”

“Oh.” Yoohyeon just sighs relieved that she doesn’t remember what she vaguely remembered. “How are you feeling? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“I don’t think Singnie’s gonna mind that I’m late.”

Yoohyeon shook her head. “No, I mean do _you_ need to go?”

“Why would I need to go to the hospital? What the hell happened last night, Rachel?” Her head is throbbing harder now. This was not your standard hangover but she thinks nothing of it.

Yoohyeon leaned against the door jamb for balance, her face still covered. She still felt exhausted, not able to go back to sleep after returning to her room. A sigh escaped from her mouth not knowing where to begin.

“What was the last thing you remembered?”

Bora thinks but her head is still foggy. “I was dancing… with somebody. And I don’t remember after that.”

Another sigh. She lost a whole chunk of last night, pretty much all the major parts. That’s probably a good thing, she thought as she tried to summarize it as short as possible.

“You were--” she started.

“Will you look at me when you’re talking? You’re being a bit rude right now.” Bora interrupted her, focused on the formalities of all things.

Another sigh from Yoohyeon but she finally lifts her head. The top part of her face is still covered by the hood but her nose and below became visible now. Bora’s eyes narrowed as she reached out to remove the hood completely. The reveal left her shocked.

“What the hell happened to your face?”

She gently places her thumb and index fingers under Yoohyeon’s chin to examine closely. It made Yoohyeon whine, like a child being scrutinized by her mother out in public. Bora makes her turn her face slightly to the side revealing the dark purplish marks dotting along her neck. She knows what those are. On her lips appeared to be smudges of lipstick she’s forgotten to wipe off. Bora smirks.

“Did you and that bartender get ‘friendly’ with each other? She was so obvious, I swear.”

Yoohyeon’s face dropped. “What? No! Do you wanna know what happened or not?”

Bora becomes serious again. “Yes, please.”

“Long story short,” Yoohyeon pauses, “you were drugged.”

“W-What?” Bora stuttered.

“That guy you were dancing with gave you a tainted drink. I wasn’t sure at first but he looked shocked when I called him out.”

Bora doesn’t say anything, processing Yoohyeon’s words in her head.

“So, I tried to get you away from him and he got a little aggressive and things went down.”

“Down?” Bora said. Her eyes trailed back to Yoohyeon’s face. She realized now that her bottom lip is actually swollen. The smudges of “lipstick” turned out to be dried blood scabbing over broken skin. Then she remembered the dark red smears in her bathroom.

“Is that blood? Did you get into a fight? Did he do that to you? That mother—”

Yoohyeon stifled a laugh, trying not to reopen the cut. Oh, if only that was the case. She’d take that over the truth. She points at her mouth. “This? This happened after we got back.”

Bora’s eyes narrowed again. “You’re not making sense. What do you mean it happened after? Where? Here?”

Yoohyeon doesn’t answer, now ashamed to explain any further. She lowers her head down but Bora makes her look up again, really assessing her swollen lip this time. She can make out a crescent-shaped cut, like a bite, a jagged line from crooked teeth. At the same time, she rubs her tongue against the back of her own bottom row of teeth, how it felt jagged, almost following the same pattern on Yoohyeon’s lip and then…

A light bulb goes off in her head then explodes.

“Did-- are you trying to say I did that to you?”

Yoohyeon’s face flushes with red now, contrasting with her yellow onesie. She doesn’t say anything again which confirmed Bora’s question. She finally pushes herself into Yoohyeon’s room, shutting the door and leaning against it.

“What happened? Did we fight? Or did we fu--.”

“No! Of course not!” Yoohyeon stops her from finishing her sentence. She didn’t want to hear it. It just didn’t sound right.

“H-how? W-w-why?” Bora’s stammered even more.

Yoohyeon shakes her head. “I don’t know! I was just getting you to your room and then you started mumbling about getting revenge and shit then got all pushy. Next thing I know you--or we might’ve done stuff. A bit.”

Bora huffed at what she was hearing. “Us? You and I? You can’t be serious.”

“Nothing happened!” Yoohyeon added. “I don’t believe it either. Other than this,” she points at her mouth. “But no, we didn’t do—you know.” She almost gagged saying that out loud.

“Please tell me you’re joking right now. This shit’s not funny anymore. I know I get a little crazy when I’m drunk but this?? This is insane!”

Yoohyeon scoffed. “You really think I would make this shit up? Oh, I wish it was a joke right now. Like, I really wished this was allll a dream.“

“But... Why did you let it happen? You weren’t half as drunk as I was. Why didn’t you stop it?”

Yoohyeon doesn’t say anything, she already said too much. If she told her what went through her mind at the time then Bora would really call her insane. Deciding to keep the last shred of her dignity, she defends her pride instead.

“Hey, it takes two,” Yoohyeon said. “Besides, you’re the one who went over your two drink limit. If you weren’t so wasted maybe you would’ve been more aware of your surroundings.”

“ _Mwo?_ But you saw the state I was in and yet, you took advantage?” She countered. “It’s like you’re no different than that guy.”

That smarted and it clearly showed on Yoohyeon’s face. She clenched her teeth so hard at the thought of being compared to that asshole. Bora wouldn’t be saying that if it wasn’t for her.

“Fine! Don’t believe me! Should’ve never gone in the first place. I should’ve just left when you told me to because clearly you can handle your own.” She immediately regretted what she said. But it was too late to take it back.

Bora’s mouth twitches between a quiver and sneer. The realization of what she just said a moment ago also dawned on her but she decides to be prideful as well.

“I can’t take this anymore! I gotta get out of here! You’ve been nothing but a pain in the ass. You—you! Ugh!” Bora reaches behind her for the doorknob and quickly disappeared faster than she had entered.

“You’re welco—ah!” Yoohyeon yelped causing her cut to open again.

She stood in the middle of her room now, hands digging into her scalp as she lets out a loud exhale. Something dripped down her chin and she wiped at her mouth again, blood staining the yellow sleeve.

“Ugh, shit!”

[Last Night]

Yoohyeon doesn’t know how it happened but in between the taxi ride and dragging Bora up to her room, she now found herself trapped between the door and a very drunk and drugged Bora. She was still on a tipsy adrenaline high but she was definitely the least drunk out of both of them. She couldn’t move, waiting for Bora to untrap her but she was not budging, her body weight slowly pressing into her.

“Bora, you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?” she asked. She felt Bora shaking her head against her shoulder. “Do you want to call Yoobin?”

“That _harabeoji_ (grandpa)? Leave her alone.” Bora mumbled. She pressed her palms flat against the door and pushed herself away from Yoohyeon still trapping her between her arms.

It was a funny sight, Yoohyeon had to admit. The last person to put her in this position stood a whole seven inches taller than her. Bora couldn’t stand eye to eye with her even with her heeled boots.

“What do you think? You. Me. Get back at them.” Bora mumbles again.

“What?” Yoohyeon sighed loudly. Is she really bringing this up again? She shook her head. “Bora, I think you should go to bed. You’re not feeling well right now.” She’s not feeling well herself, she just wants to go back to her room and sleep. She tried to maneuver her way out of Bora’s trap but is pushed against the door again.

“Don’t ignore me,” Bora growled lifting her heavy head to look up at Yoohyeon. Even behind those gray contacts, Yoohyeon can see in her eyes that Bora is not at all there in her head. “You thought about it huh? You want to hurt them too like they hurt us.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you want revenge?”

“What good will that do? What’s done is done.”

“You give up then? That’s it? You’re such a, a—“

“Coward? Quitter? Yeah, what else is new? Why am I even talking to you? You’re not going to remember this anyway.”

She tried to free herself again but that’s when she felt Bora’s full weight against her. She grabs Bora’s shoulders and pushes her away at arm's length, holding her firmly.

"Stop it! You're acting crazy right now.” Then she gets really close to Bora’s face, smelling the alcohol wafting by her face from Bora’s breath. “Is this what you want? Huh? Do you really want to do this?"

Yoohyeon hovers over Bora using her height to intimidate hoping Bora would come to her senses and back off. But she doesn't and Yoohyeon is pushed against the door again.

Something like electricity shoots through her body the moment she felt Bora’s lips against her neck. A soft moan involuntarily escapes from her dry throat. She can feel lips sucking hard against her jugular and for a moment she was convinced that Bora is an actual vampire and she's now draining her of her blood. Any harder and she felt that her delicate skin and veins would rupture.

She wants to stop but feeling this long lost sensation again makes her weak and she finally gives in to her own hunger. Bora urges her closer now, a desperation in her actions as she pulls Yoohyeon towards her face. But Yoohyeon grabs her trembling hands off her. Instead, she slid down against the door until she met eye to eye with Bora and allowed her to go at her again, attacking her lips this time with even more fervor. They tasted bitter, tinged with alcohol and Yoohyeon felt like she could get drunk again from them. Her own hands find their way on Bora’s body, grabbing a hold of her hips and pulling her onto her lap, still leaning against the door. She felt the warmth between Bora’s legs radiating through her jeans and she couldn’t help but feel her own heat rising.

“Honey… baby...” Bora breathes between their lips and it made Yoohyeon stop for a second.

 _Hyeonie… baby…_ Yoohyeon thought she heard.

“Min-- Minji.” She sighed.

That's it. A spark has ignited inside her. She stood up now to deepen the kiss this time, fully tasting Bora’s mouth. It feels so intoxicating as she falls deeper into it. She can stop, she thinks as she counts down in her head still somewhat aware. She won’t go too far. Just a little more because shit, this feels so good. She didn’t mind Bora’s roughness anymore for it is actually breaking through the numbness that has bound her for so long.

Her mind is racing, calculating with all kinds of thoughts. In the back of her mind, she knows this is Bora but the other part of her brain thinks this is so absurd that it has to be all in her drunken imagination. Yeah, this can’t be real. Bora would not believe it either. She’s convinced that she’s still drunk and gives in to this fantasy, seeing how it will play out and maybe she’ll laugh about it later when she wakes up from this dream, or nightmare. Every neuron in her body is fired up and going crazy right now. She’s never had a fantasy so vivid like this. But all of that came to an end when reality bit her back, literally.

A flash of white followed by pain fills Yoohyeon’s vision and her immediate reaction is to push away. When she opens her eyes she sees Bora lying on the floor. A warm metallic taste fills her mouth. She wipes at it with the sleeve of her borrowed shirt. Blood. She is bleeding from her mouth.

Immediately she runs to the bathroom to check her face and is shocked at what she sees. Her neck looks as if she had been pelted by blueberries and the orange and red lipstick smeared across her mouth like war paint. Now she looks like she had been in a legit fight, the bruised marks along her neck getting darker but it was her lip that stole the show. She couldn’t believe it. Bora bit her! And she really bit down, seeing actual bite marks cutting through skin. She spits out the blood and saliva filling her mouth, the crimson liquid staining the sink. Then she remembered something, her lip ring. Where is it? She panicked for a second before remembering that she had put it inside her jeans’ pocket. She pulls it out and sighs in relief. She doesn’t remember the last time she took it off but she’s so grateful this time because things could have been a lot worse.

Yoohyeon grabs a washcloth and presses it against her mouth not caring that it’s going to stain the stark white fabric. Then she hears the sound of coughing and choking outside the bathroom.

"Sick! Sick!" Bora chokes out, writhing on the floor.

Yoohyeon ignores her lip for a moment to tend to Bora, trying to quickly drag her into the bathroom before she makes a mess on the floor. She struggles to get her to the toilet and bends her over the tub instead. The sound of her retching almost made her want to vomit too.

Good, at least she’ll get that poison out of her system, she thought. Yoohyeon looks for Bora's phone and finds it on the floor then tries to use it to call Yoobin but the screen is locked.

“Shit! Perfect!” She grunted now trying to figure out the next step.

It's no use asking Bora, she’s incapable of doing anything right now. She is still draped over the tub, breathing heavily but otherwise ok. Yoohyeon felt like leaving her there in case she needed to vomit still but decides to get her into her bed. She tries to have her stand up but Bora moves like a ragdoll, unable to support her weight. So Yoohyeon drags her across the floor towards her bed. The force in her effort made her pulses throb and she felt her lip bleeding out again.

She clears off the mattress before plopping Bora on to it, fumbling and falling on top of her in the process. They both groaned. Bora’s clothes are damp with sweat and alcohol and Yoohyeon can feel her shivering underneath her. She pushes herself off of her and helps her out of her clothes. It peels off like snake skin as her body writhed even more and now glistened from the light of the bathroom. Yoohyeon looks away and quickly covers her with the sheets before sliding to the floor.

“Singniiiee... babyyy…” Bora moaned.

How exhausting, this was not how she expected the night would end up. Yoohyeon returns to the bathroom and examines the damage on her face again. It looks worse the more she looks at it. If only this happened at the club, it would be easier to explain it that way. She bends over the sink and washes her face, scrubbing off as much makeup as she could. She finds her own shirt again and replaces the one she’s borrowed now stained by her injured mouth. As she exits the bathroom she doesn’t hear anything, turning to Bora who’s lying quietly now. She sees her chest rising up and down then confirms that she’ll be all right. Finally. A few steps forward and Yoohyeon collapses onto the creaky couch, exhausted and in pain. Her eyelids feel heavy now but she tells herself not to fall asleep but her body doesn’t listen.

[Present]

“She’s lying! She’s crazy! There’s no way!”

Bora grabs her belongings, stuffing them haphazardly into her many bags and luggage. It’s time to get out of here. That girl is walking bad luck. She’ll just go back to her apartment and doesn’t mind taking the thirty minute drive to and from the hospital as long as she is far away from her. She tried to be as cordial as long as she could but it’s no use, it will just come off fake and both of them know they’re just bullshitting each other.

She clears out every corner of the room making sure not to forget anything when she hears the sound of her phone finally resurrecting from the dead. Then a slew of chimes in rapid succession went off from texts, voicemail, and missed calls from last night, most likely from Yoobin. She drops everything for a second to pick up her phone scrolling through the many “Where are you?” texts before finally listening to Yoobin’s voicemail.

_“Unnie, you’re either still drunk and/or your phone battery died. I’m gonna say both. Anyway, did you hear the news this morning? They arrested some guy at the club you guys went to. Said he’s been going there for awhile drugging girls’ drinks but he finally got the crap beaten out of him this time. They found the drug residue all over him. Isn’t that crazy? Were you still there when it happened? Anyway, call me back. Don’t make me come find you. Ok? Love ya. Bye.”_

“ _Aish_!” Bora groaned. She really was telling the truth. Well, she knew she was but she didn’t want to believe it, no one is that crazy to make up a story like that. But it still doesn’t explain what happened between them last night. Maybe that’s a good thing. Besides, she wasn’t aware of what happened so it wasn’t her fault, right? But that’s also a bad thing, she realized as she shuddered at the thought of what could’ve happened.

She plops onto the couch, sighing in defeat. She didn’t mean to compare her to that man, someone who could have hurt her had Yoohyeon not intervened. She knows what she has to do next.

“Fuuuuuhhh….” she groaned some more. Not this again. She stalls a bit before finally getting up to go back down to Yoohyeon’s room. She knocks gently on the door this time. Yoohyeon opens it and immediately looks confused.

“Bora, what are you—”

“Sit. Please.” Bora commanded, forcing her way into Yoohyeon’s room again. She pushes Yoohyeon backwards until the back of her knees hit the mattress making her fall back on it clumsily. Bora stood too close in front of her almost between her legs.

“What are you doing???” Yoohyeon panics. She sees Bora dropping a plastic bag on the bed and digging into it, pulling out a bunch of first aid items.

“You’re not the only one stealing medical supplies,” Bora said. “Let me see.”

She puts her hand under Yoohyeon’s chin again and lifts it up toward her. The bite’s so hideous, glossy with exposed raw flesh, making Yoohyeon’s natural pout look like a botched lip job.

“Does it hurt?”

Yoohyeon rolled her eyes. “What do you think?”

“I mean how much does it hurt?”

“It feels like it has its own heartbeat.”

Bora grimaced at the description. She still couldn’t believe that she actually did that. This has never happened before. Even as rough as she was with Siyeon she’s never gone that far.

She rips open an alcohol pad and gently taps it against the swollen lip. Yoohyeon winces at the sting but she knows it’s only for a few seconds. A silent tear falls from the corner of one of her eyes.

“Sorry. I’m sorry,” Bora whispers, on the verge of tearing up herself. She blows on it to soothe it, the coolness was welcoming.

“Ah, where’s your lip ring?” Bora noticed. “Oh my god, did it rip off?”

Yoohyeon manages to smirk. “No, I took it off yesterday when you put on the lipstick, remember?”

Bora sighed having forgotten about it. “Oh, right. Thank god. I can’t imagine.”

“It’ll take more than alcohol pads to fix it, that’s for sure.”

Bora tightens her lips now. “I just heard Yoobin’s voicemail. She said they arrested a guy at the club last night. Was it him?”

“Most likely. We didn’t stick around to find out.”

Bora hesitated for a moment. “Can you tell me everything. Please?”

“You sure?”

She nods her head.

Yoohyeon lets out a sigh, recollecting everything she remembered.

“The guy you were dancing with came to the bar and ordered a drink. And me cursed with an eye for detail caught him slipping something into that drink then giving it to you. I didn’t believe it at first but I knew I had to get you away from him. But then he got aggressive and I panicked. But by some miracle, I managed to kick him where it counts.”

Bora smirks this time. “I hope he’s out of business for good.”

“Better be.” Yoohyeon picks up a boot and taps the toe. It made a hard thud. “Steel toe.”

“Shit. Thank god I didn’t make you change your shoes.”

“ _Never know when you need to give an ass kicking._ ” She repeated her words from last night.

They both exchanged silent smirks but the tension in the air was sobering.

Bora feels a knot in her throat now. “I’m so sorry. I really fucked up this time. If I hadn't gotten emotional and careless, I wouldn’t have gotten myself in that situation.”

“If not you, then it would’ve been some other girl. He made the mistake of messing with a vampire and a zombie last night.” Yoohyeon smiled, hoping to lighten the mood a bit. Bora cracks a smile back despite fighting back the urge to cry.

Yoohyeon closes her eyes now, allowing Bora to finish. Her breath tickled over Bora’s hands as she continued to nurse the wound. She puts a little dab of ointment to finish it off and Yoohyeon felt two warm hands cupping her cheeks now. She opens her eyes and sees Bora checking her lip to make sure everything looked okay. Then they caught each other’s gazes, holding them for what seemed like a long time as if they were continuing their conversation silently through their eyes. So much could be said but the look in Bora’s intense stare was very apologetic.

“Why did you do that?” Bora whispered, her eyes still locked on Yoohyeon’s.

“Huh?” Yoohyeon gasped. “I mean, any sane person would’ve done something about it.”

“No, I mean, why did you let me do that… to you?” Bora said as her thumb unconsciously slid across her cheekbone.

Yoohyeon thinks for a second. “Maybe… maybe I just wanted to feel something again. For a moment I thought I was with…” she stopped herself, “I mean— it was stupid. I’m sorry.”

Yoohyeon placed a hand over Bora’s but the cold touch from her fingertips made Bora pull her hands away, realizing that she was holding on to her face a bit too long. She wiped off the moisture from her palms.

Yoohyeon kinda wished Bora hadn’t let go for her cheeks felt cold now. Then she sees Bora leaning forward now and for a second her heart almost skipped a beat, but Bora digs into the plastic bag again to pull out one more thing.

“Here, in the meantime.” She handed a paper face mask to Yoohyeon who immediately puts it on, not to protect her wound but to hide the redness that was beginning to crawl up her face.

“Thanks.” She smiled with her eyes.

“Take care of it, ok? Keep it clean.” Bora said.

Yoohyeon nods and watches Bora gather her bag then making her way toward the door before turning around again.

“Um, I know I can be a stubborn hard-ass but there’s no need to put up a front anymore. So, if there’s anything you need, like anything at all, let me know. Ok?”

“It’s ok. Don’t trouble yourself.” Yoohyeon replied, her voice muffled by the mask.

“No, it’s not,” Bora replies defensively. “After all that I practically owe you my life. So please, anything at all. I’m serious.”

Yoohyeon doesn’t argue and just agreed with her. “Ok.”

“All right. Well, see ya.”

Yoohyeon stood up to see her out the door. Then Bora turns around again and surprises her with a hug this time, her tiny arms wrapped around Yoohyeon’s just as tiny torso. She’s so thin that Bora could almost touch her own elbows.

“Thank you.” She said.

Yoohyeon’s arms embraced Bora back lightly. She could still smell the faint perfume and alcohol on her from last night.

“Yeah, sure.” She just replied, her breath inflating through the mask.

Bora lets go. “Let’s not talk about this, ok?” She sees Yoohyeon nodding in agreement. “And… outfit’s cute, by the way.” Bora smiled one last time before walking away.

Yoohyeon watches her disappear down the hall. Behind the mask, she manages to mouth a “thanks” under her breath.

  
Bora returns to her room, a little sullen now. She was grateful for the amnesiac episode but something still lingered in the back of her mind and she doesn’t know how to feel about it. Her room is a mess, her bags of stuff still laid open with its contents wrinkled and overflowing. She decided to stay after all, especially now that she owed Yoohyeon a big favor.

Electricity buzzed as she entered the bathroom and started the shower. A glance at the mirror and she sees her weary face, worry and confusion riddling between the lines in her furrowed brow. The last few minutes replayed in her mind and she couldn’t believe that for a moment the thought of kissing her (again) had crossed her mind. This time as a token of gratitude for rescuing her. That’s a valid reason, right? But what is she thinking? She’s already done enough damage.

She shook the thought out of her head as the steam already fogged up the tiny bathroom. Her face is only a blur in the mirror now. Then something shiny catches her eye near the sink drain. It’s round and silver and upon a closer look, she realized it is Yoohyeon’s lip ring. She picks it up, rubbing it between her thumb and index fingers before carefully putting it along with her other jewelry.

She strips down and finally enters the shower, grinning and bearing at the water pelting her like a fiery hailstorm. That’s fine with her because she feels like shit, wanting to scrub off the layers that are making her feel dirty right now. She still couldn’t believe she allowed herself to lose control like that, now look where it’s gotten her.

The truth is that she remembered more than she thought. But they all felt like snippets of a nightmare she thought she was having until Yoohyeon filled the gaps in her memory. The club was a blur for sure but she remembered parts of what happened in her room.

Little blurs came back to her and she can now confirm that those were real. Every motion felt very intentional and not fueled by drunken stupor. But she also remembered the anger seething inside her, spreading like wildfire. That was real too and she can still feel it simmering under her skin. And then the bite, the result of that unyielding fire escaping out of her. Her tongue still feels stained by the taste of blood long after it was over.

She snapped out of her daze again noticing that her skin had reddened by the scalding water. She immediately switches to cold, the iciness felt just as painful but it finally extinguished the rage within. Now guilt washed over her with her true intentions finally realized. She wondered if it was worth it. She slides to the floor, shaking her head in denial and bawling into a sobbing mess.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the reader who I said that Bora's mouth is gonna get her in trouble? That's what I meant. lol
> 
> Did anyone predict this would happen? I’ve always wanted to incorporate Bora’s biting incident somewhere and Yoohyeon’s Pikachu onesie (from one of their old vlives) is random, I know. lol 
> 
> Hmm, what’s going to happen in the next 2 chapters? 🤔 Thanks for all the hits/kudos/comments.
> 
> As always hmu Twitter @yodo97 or Curious Cat https://curiouscat.me/yodo97


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